# Stephen Graham Jones

Stephen Graham Jones (born January 22, 1972) is a Blackfeet Native 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 Night of the Mannequins.
Jones is the Ineva Baldwin Professor of English at the University of Colorado, where he has been a faculty member since 2008.

## Background

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 Ph.D. in 1998 from Florida State University.
After graduating with his Ph.D. in 1998, Jones worked in a warehouse in Texas until a back injury sentenced him to a desk job. Jones worked at the Texas Tech Library until going on to teach 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.

## 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' 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’ 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’ novel title The Only Good Indians.

## Personal life

Jones and his wife Nancy married on May 20, 1995. They have two children together.
Jones resides in Boulder, Colorado with his wife, son, and daughter. He teaches at the University of Colorado as the Ineva Reilly Baldwin Endowed Chair. 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’ novel The Only Good Indians.

## Awards

Awards for Jones's writing :
| Year | Title | Award | Category | Result |
| 2007 | "Raphael" | International Horror Guild Award | Short Fiction | Shortlisted |
| 2009 | The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti | Shirley Jackson Award | Novella | Shortlisted |
| 2010 | "Lonegan's Luck" | Shirley Jackson Award | Novelette | Shortlisted |
| 2011 | The Ones That Got Away | Bram Stoker Award | Fiction Collection | Shortlisted |
| 2011 | The Ones That Got Away | Shirley Jackson Award | Collection | Shortlisted |
| 2015 | After the People Lights Have Gone Off | Bram Stoker Award | Fiction Collection | Shortlisted |
| 2015 | After the People Lights Have Gone Off | Shirley Jackson Award | Collection | Shortlisted |
| 2016 | Mongrels | Bram Stoker Award | Novel | Shortlisted |
| 2017 | Mapping the Interior | Bram Stoker Award | Long Fiction | Won |
| 2017 | Mongrels | Locus Award | Horror Novel | Nominated–9th |
| 2017 | Mongrels | Shirley Jackson Award | Novel | Shortlisted |
| 2017 | "The Night Cyclist" | Shirley Jackson Award | Novelette | Shortlisted |
| 2018 | Mapping the Interior | Shirley Jackson Award | Novel | Shortlisted |
| 2018 | Mapping the Interior | World Fantasy Award | Novella | Shortlisted |
| 2020 | Night of the Mannequins | Bram Stoker Award | Long Fiction | Won |
| 2020 | Night of the Mannequins | Shirley Jackson Award | Novella | Won |
| 2020 | The Only Good Indians | Audie Award | Thriller/Suspense | Shortlisted |
| 2020 | The Only Good Indians | Bram Stoker Award | Novel | Won |
| 2020 | The Only Good Indians | Goodreads Choice Award | Horror | Nominated—5th |
| 2020 | The Only Good Indians | Los Angeles Times Book Prize | Ray Bradbury Prize | Won |
| 2020 | The Only Good Indians | Shirley Jackson Award | Novel | Won |
| 2021 | My Heart Is a Chainsaw | Bram Stoker Award | Novel | Won |
| 2021 | The Only Good Indians | Alex Award | — | Won |
| 2021 | The Only Good Indians | British Fantasy Award | Horror Novel | Shortlisted |
| 2021 | The Only Good Indians | Dragon Award | Horror Novel | Shortlisted |
| 2021 | The Only Good Indians | Ignyte Award | Adult Novel | Shortlisted |
| 2021 | The Only Good Indians | Locus Award | Horror Novel | Nominated—2nd |
| 2021 | The Only Good Indians | World Fantasy Award | Novel | Shortlisted |
| 2021 | "Wait for Night" | Locus Award | Short Story | Nominated—10th |
| 2022 | My Heart Is a Chainsaw | British Fantasy Award | Horror Novel | Shortlisted |
| 2022 | My Heart Is a Chainsaw | Dragon Award | Horror Novel | Shortlisted |
| 2022 | My Heart Is a Chainsaw | Locus Award | Horror Novel | Won |
| 2022 | My Heart Is a Chainsaw | Shirley Jackson Award | Novel | Won |
| 2023 | Don't Fear the Reaper | Bram Stoker Award | Novel | Shortlisted |
| 2023 | Don't Fear the Reaper | Shirley Jackson Award | Novel | Shortlisted |
| 2024 | Don't Fear the Reaper | British Fantasy Award | Horror Novel | Won |
| 2024 | Don't Fear the Reaper | Locus Award | Horror Novel | Nominated—5th |

## Selected works
### Books

* The Fast Red Road: A Plainsong. Fiction Collective 2. 2000. ISBN 9781573660884.
* All the Beautiful Sinners. Rugged Land. 2003. ISBN 9781590710081.
* The Bird Is Gone: A Manifesto. Fiction Collective 2. 2003. ISBN 9781573661096.
* Seven Spanish Angels. Dzanc. 2005. ASIN B005D7V6NA.
* Bleed into Me: A Book of Stories. Native Storiers: A series of American Narratives. University of Nebraska Press. 2005. ISBN 9780803226050.
* Demon Theory. MacAdam/Cage. 2006. ISBN 9781596921641.
* The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti. Chiasmus Press. 2008. ISBN 9780981502748.
* Ledfeather. Fiction Collective 2. 2008. ISBN 9781573661461.
* It Came from Del Rio. Trapdoor Books. 2010. ISBN 9781936500017.
* The Ones that Got Away. Prime Books. 2011. ISBN 9781607013211.
* The Last Final Girl. Lazy Fascist Press. 2012. ISBN 9781621050513.
* Growing Up Dead in Texas. MP Publishing Ltd. 2012. ISBN 9781849821544.
* Zombie Bake-Off. Lazy Fascist. 2012. ISBN 9781621050193.
* Zombie Sharks with Metal Teeth. Lazy Fascist. 2013. ISBN 9781621050995.
* Three Miles Past. Nightscape. 2013. ISBN 9781938644078.
* The Least of My Scars. Broken River Books. 2013. ISBN 9781940885001.
* States of Grace. SpringGun Press. 2014. ISBN 9780983221883.
* Flushboy. Dzanc Books. 2013. ISBN 9781938604171.
* Not for Nothing. Dzanc Books. 2014. ISBN 9781938604539.
* After the People Lights Have Gone Off. Dark House Press. 2014. ISBN 9781940430256.
* The Gospel of Z. Samhain. 2014. ISBN 9781619218116.
* My Hero. Hex Publishers. 2016. ISBN 9780998666709.
* Mongrels. HarperCollins Publishers. 2016. ISBN 9780062412690.
* Mapping the Interior. Tor Books. 2017. ISBN 9780765395108.
* Night of the Mannequins. Tor.com. 2020. ISBN 9781250752079.
* The Only Good Indians. Saga, Simon & Schuster. 2020. ISBN 9781982136451.
* The Indian Lake Trilogy
** My Heart Is a Chainsaw. Saga Press, Simon & Schuster. 2021. ISBN 9781982137632.
** Don't Fear the Reaper. Saga, Simon & Schuster. 2023. ISBN 9781982186593.
** The Angel of Indian Lake. Saga, Simon & Schuster. 2024. ISBN 9781668011669.
* I Was a Teenage Slasher. Saga Press, Simon & Schuster. 2024. ISBN 9781668022245.
* The Buffalo Hunter Hunter. Saga Press, Simon & Schuster. 2025. ISBN 9781668075081.

### Under the pseudonym P. T. Jones

* Jones, P. T.; Tremblay, Paul G. (2014). Floating Boy and the Girl Who Couldn't Fly. ChiTeen, ChiZine Publications. ISBN 9781771481731.

### Short stories

* "Captain's Lament". Clarkesworld. No. 17. February 1, 2008.
* "How Billy Hanson Destroyed the Planet Earth, and Everyone on It". Juked. April 1, 2009.
* "Little Lambs". The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories, edited by Jeff VanderMeer and Ann VaderMeer, reprint edition. Tor Books. 2012. ISBN 9780765333629.
* Sterling City. Nightscape. May 18, 2013. ISBN 9781938644160.
* The Elvis Room. This is Horror. March 31, 2014. ISBN 9780957548152.
* "Brushdogs". Nightmare Magazine. No. 58. 2014.
* "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

* Earthdivers, no. 1– (October 2022–present). IDW Publishing.
* "Dear Final Girls" (2019) art by Jolyon Yates, originally published in the Horror Special issue of Wicked Awesome tales edited by Todd Jones.