Fowler was born February 7, 1950, in Bloomington, Indiana, and spent the first eleven years of her life there. Her family then moved to Palo Alto, California. Fowler attended the University of California, Berkeley, and majored in political science. After having a child during the last year of her master's program, she spent seven years devoted to child-raising. Feeling restless, Fowler decided to take a dance class, and then a creative writing class at the University of California, Davis. Realizing that she was never going to make it as a dancer, Fowler began to publish science fiction stories, making a name for herself with the short story "Recalling Cinderella" (1985) in L Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 1 (1985) and Artificial Things (1986), a collection of short stories.
Her first novel, Sarah Canary (1991), was published to critical acclaim. The novel involves a group of people in the Pacific Northwestalienated by nineteenth century America experiencing a peculiar kind of first contact in 1873. One character is Chinese American, another putatively mentally ill, a third a feminist, and lastly Sarah herself, a mysterious woman who is actually an extraterrestrial. Fowler meant for Sarah Canary to "read like a science fiction novel to a science fiction reader" and "like a mainstream novel to a mainstream reader." Fowler's intentions were to leave room for the readers' own interpretation of the text.[1]
James Tiptree, Jr. Award
Fowler also collaborated with Pat Murphy to found the James Tiptree, Jr. Award in 1991, a literary prize for science fiction or fantasy that "expands or explores our understanding of gender." The prize is named for science fiction author Alice Sheldon who wrote under the pen name James Tiptree Jr. Fowler drew inspiration not only from Sheldon's work, but also from the fact that Sheldon's mother was an adventurer, going on several trips to Africa including a gorilla hunting expedition in 1920. As such, she serves as the inspiration for the protagonist in Fowler's "What I Didn't See" The award's main focus is to recognize the authors, male or female, who challenge and reflect shifting gender roles.[2]
Her other genre works also tended to focus on odd corners of the nineteenth century experiencing the unexpected or fantastic. Her second novel, The Sweetheart Season (1996) is a romantic comedy infused with historical and fantasy elements.
Her 2004 novel The Jane Austen Book Club become a critical and popular success including being on The New York Times bestsellers list. Six members of an early 21st-century book club discuss Jane Austen books. Although it is not a science fiction or fantasy work, science fiction does play an integral part to the novel's plot.[3]
In Wit's End, a young woman visits her godmother, one of America's most successful mystery writers.
Fowler's novel, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (2013), is told from the perspective of Rosemary, a college student, while attending University of California, Davis in her early twenties. She reflects on her early life in Indiana while the main events of the story unfold in the present. Raised by academic parents (including a father who is professor of behavioral psychology at Indiana University Bloomington) with her brother Lowell and a chimpanzee named Fern, Rosemary begins to discovery university secrets that relate to her past. When Fern, added to the family as part of a long-term research study, suddenly disappears, Lowell leaves home to search for her. The novel was a critical success, with contemporary authors and pundits acclaiming the narrative and writing style. It won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 2014. It was also shortlisted for the 2014 Nebula Award and 2014 Man Booker Prize.[4][5]
Fowler's most recent novel, Booth, involves a family of Shakespearean actors best known for their connection to Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth. It was longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize.[6]
Short story collections
Her 1998 collection, Black Glass, which has 15 short stories, 2 of which are original, won a World Fantasy Award, and her 2010 collection What I Didn't See, and Other Stories, containing 12 short stories with 1 original, also won a World Fantasy Award over two decades later.
Fowler was inspired to write her short story "What I Didn't See" after doing research about chimpanzees for her book We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. During her research, Fowler came across an essay by Donna Haraway which discusses a 1920 expedition that was carried out by the curator of the New York National Museum of History. One of the men on the expedition wanted a woman in the group to kill a gorilla in order to ultimately protect these species. He reasoned that if women could carry out this action, gorillas would no longer be seen as a fearsome animal, and the thrill of killing them would be gone. Fowler's reaction was one of appalled interest, and she was inspired to write "What I Didn't See" by these findings. It won the short story Nebula Award in 2003.[1]
1985 Published Winner for "Recalling Cinderella," a new writer short story winner in L. Ron Hubbard Presents: Writer's of the Future Vol 1 edited by Algis Budrys
Artificial Things (1986) - collection of 13 short stories.
Peripheral Vision (1990) - collection of 5 stories, 1 original. (Author's Choice Monthly #6). The entire contents of this collection are reprinted in Black Glass (1997)
Letters from Home (1991) with Pat Cadigan and Pat Murphy. Collection of short fiction by Fowler, Cadigan, and Murphy.
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