Ebony Flowers was born and raised in Maryland. She holds a BA in Biological Anthropology from the University of Maryland College Park and a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she wrote her dissertation as a comic (mostly).

Flowers was named the Mary I. Bunting Institute Fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, part of the 2022-23 Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellowship Program.

Flowers is a 2017 Rona Jaffe Award recipient. Hot Comb, her debut book, appeared on best of 2019 lists from the Washington Post, NPR, the Guardian, and the New York Public Library. Hot Comb won the Eisner, Ignatz, and Believer Book Award, and received nominations for numerous others, including the NAACP Image Award and the YALSA Alex Awards. Flowers lives in Denver, CO, with her son, husband, and cat.