Stephen Graham Jones (born January 22, 1972) is an American author of experimental fiction, horror fiction, crime fiction, and science fiction. His works include the horror novels The Only Good Indians, My Heart Is a Chainsaw, and The Buffalo Hunter Hunter.

Jones is the Ineva Baldwin Professor of English at the University of Colorado Boulder where he has been a faculty member since 2008. Retrieved 10-04-2026. Retrieved 10-04-2026.

Early life and education Stephen Graham Jones was born in Midland, Texas, on January 22, 1972, to Dennis Jones and Rebecca Graham. He is an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of Montana.

Jones's enthusiasm for reading began at the early age of 11; however, as a boy he had aspirations to be a farmer, never a teacher or a writer. After completing a semester of college, Jones decided to continue to pursue his degree while still having the intention to return to a manual labor job post-grad.

Jones received his Bachelor of Arts in English and Philosophy from Texas Tech University in 1994, a Master of Arts in English from the University of North Texas in 1996, and his PhD from Florida State University in 1998.

After graduating with his PhD, Jones worked at a warehouse in Texas until a back injury sentenced him to a desk job. He worked at the Texas Tech Library until taking up teaching at Texas Tech University and the University of West Texas.

Writing career

While he was attending Florida State University, Jones's dissertation director introduced him to Houghton-Mifflin editor Jane Silver at the Writers' Harvest conference. Jones pitched her a novel which he had not yet written, and Silver liked the idea. Jones then wrote the book, The Fast Red Road, as his dissertation. It was published as his debut novel in 2000. It was followed by All the Beautiful Sinners in 2003.

In 2002, Jones won a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in fiction. In 2006, he won the Jesse Jones Award for Fiction from the Texas Institute of Letters for his 2005 short story collection Bleed into Me. He won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Long Fiction for Mapping the Interior in 2017.

The Only Good Indians, a horror novel, was published on July 14, 2020, through Saga Press and Titan Books. It won the Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction in 2020. Jones won two 2020 Bram Stoker Awards for Night of the Mannequins and The Only Good Indians.

Jones contributed an X-Men story to Marvel Comics' Marvel's Voices: Indigenous Voices #1 anthology, release in November 2020. Joining him was artist David Cutler.

The Buffalo Hunter Hunter has won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel, the Locus Award for Best Horror Novel, and the Nebula Award for Best Novel.

In 2026, Jones received the Blackwell Prize in Writing from the University of West Georgia.

Themes and style Jones has acknowledged a debt to Native American Renaissance writers, especially Gerald Vizenor. Scholar Cathy Covell Waegner describes Jones's work as containing elements of "dark playfulness, narrative inventiveness, and genre mixture." Jones also cites the novels of Louis L'Amour as an influence on his development as a writer, stating that "For better or worse, those pulp westerns are now part of my DNA as a writer."

Joseph Gaudet cited Jones's writing as "post-ironic" or representative of David Foster Wallace's "New Sincerity", a literary approach "emerging in response to the cynicism, detachment, and alienation that many saw as defining the postmodern canon," seeking instead "to more patently embrace morality, sincerity, and an 'ethos of belief'. His eighth novel, Ledfeather, which Jones stated was the most widely taught of his books, is used as Gaudet's primary example.

Jones has a natural inclination towards the sentimental and speculates that the dark and chilling nature of his writing is an overcorrection on his part. Jones enjoys the constant escalation of the bizarre but uses humor to release building pressure in order to build anticipation once more for the reader. Jones's novels can be described as Native American Gothic, or Rez Gothic: a niche publishing genre characterized as using fantasy, science fiction, and horror to shed light on racial inequalities such as the one referenced through Jones's novel title The Only Good Indians.

Personal life Jones and his wife Nancy married on May 20, 1995. They have two children together.The Lineup Retrieved March 5, 2026

Jones resides in Boulder, Colorado, with his wife, son, and daughter. He teaches at the University of Colorado Boulder where he is the Ineva Reilly Baldwin Endowed Chair. He has also taught at the Institute of American Indian Arts, University of California Riverside, and Clarion West. Retrieved 2026-08-05. Jones enjoys returning to northern Montana in July to attend the Blackfeet Nation Pow Wow and in November for the annual Montana Blackfeet elk hunt. This annual elk hunt inspired Jones's novel The Only Good Indians.

Works Novels and novellas

The Indian Lake Trilogy

Collections

Under the pseudonym P. T. Jones

Short stories

"Little Lambs". The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories, edited by Jeff VanderMeer and Ann VanderMeer, reprint edition. Tor Books. 2012. ISBN 9780765333629.

"The Backbone of the World". Amazon Original Stories. February 24, 2022. ASIN B09RQZZ9P8. "Men, Women, and Chainsaws". Tor.com. April 20, 2022. ISBN 9781250850874.

Comics

"Dear Final Girls" (2019) art by Jolyon Yates, originally published in the Horror Special issue of Wicked Awesome tales edited by Todd Jones. Memorial Ride (2021) art by Maria Wolf. University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 9780826363237.

Awards +Awards for Jones's writing Year Title Award Category Result Ref. 2008 Shirley Jackson Award Novella 2009 Shirley Jackson Award Novelette 2010 Bram Stoker Award Fiction Collection Shirley Jackson Award Single-Author Collection 2014After the People Lights Have Gone Off Bram Stoker Award Fiction Collection Shirley Jackson Award Single-Author Collection 2016 Shirley Jackson Award Novelette Mongrels Bram Stoker Award Novel Shirley Jackson Award Novel 2017 Locus Award Horror Novel Mapping the Interior Bram Stoker Award Long Fiction Shirley Jackson Award Novella 2018 World Fantasy Award Novella 2020 Night of the Mannequins Bram Stoker Award Long Fiction Shirley Jackson Award Novella Bram Stoker Award Novel Goodreads Choice Award Horror Ray Bradbury Prize — Shirley Jackson Award Novel 2021 Alex Award — Audie Award Thriller/Suspense British Fantasy Award Horror Novel Dragon Award Horror Novel Ignyte Award Adult Novel Locus Award Horror Novel Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award — World Fantasy Award Novel Locus Award Short Story My Heart Is a Chainsaw Bram Stoker Award Novel Shirley Jackson Award Novel 2022 British Fantasy Award Horror Novel Dragon Award Horror Novel Locus Award Horror Novel 2023 Ignyte Award Novelette Don't Fear the Reaper Bram Stoker Award Novel Shirley Jackson Award Novel 2024 British Fantasy Award Horror Novel Locus Award Horror Novel I Was a Teenage Slasher Bram Stoker Award Novel 2025 Locus Award Horror Novel Ignyte Award Short Story Locus Award Short Story Bram Stoker Award Novel Dragon Award Horror Novel Goodreads Choice Awards Horror Los Angeles Times Book Prize Fiction Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction Nebula Award Novel 2026 Audie Award Horror British Fantasy Award Horror Novel Igntye AwardOutstanding Novel – AdultLocus AwardHorror Novel

References

Further reading Billy J. Stratton, The Fictions of Stephen Graham Jones: A Critical Companion (U of New Mexico P, 2016)

External links

Stephen Graham Jones at the University of Colorado

Profile at Simon & Schuster