Hazel Rowley came to Adelaide, South Australia, from the United Kingdom at the age of eight. She was awarded Honours in French and German and a PhD in French from the University of Adelaide. She went on to teach Literary Studies at Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria, and lived in St Kilda, Victoria, before moving to the United States.
As well as writing in the field of Australian literature, Hazel Rowley published Richard Wright: The Life and Times (Henry Holt, 2001), Tete-a-Tete: The Lives and Loves of Simone de Beauvoir & Jean-Paul Sartre (Vintage, 2005) and Franklin & Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage (MUP, 2011). Franklin & Eleanor was shortlisted in 2012 for the Nonfiction Award in the Festival Awards for Literature (South Australia) and won the Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA), Australian Biography of the Year.
Rowley died unexpectedly in March 2011. In her name, the Hazel Rowley Fellowship was established, to provide financial support to an author for the production of a biography.