The Alan Bowne papers consists of three boxes of materials created over the course of Bowne's career as a playwright and author. These include play scripts and drafts, short story drafts, screenplays, correspondence, notebooks, photographs, and audio cassettes and one reel-to-reel tape. These materials originate from the 1970s - 1991, with the bulk of the collection originating from the 1980s. The collections contains two series.

Series 1: Writings and Correspondence (1971 - 1991) includes multiple drafts and scripts of Bowne's work, including drafts for "Forty-Deuce," "Sharon and Billy," and "Wally Wonderstruck." It also includes correspondence and other materials related to submitting his written work to various publishers. Notable are two notebooks Bowne wrote in, one containing his thoughts on his presumed AIDS diagnosis.

Series 2: Photographs and Audiovisual Materials (circa 1970s - 1989) includes photographs of Bowne himself, with friends, on vacation, and of his Sonoma County, CA home and the surrounding countryside. The two audio cassettes and reel-to-reel tape contain recordings of a 1984 production of his play "Sharon and Billy."