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Stephen Graham Jones

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Stephen Graham Jones
Stephen Graham Jones, late 2019
Stephen Graham Jones, late 2019
Born (1972-01-22) January 22, 1972 (age 52)
Midland, Texas, U.S.
OccupationWriter, Ineva Baldwin Professor of English at University of Colorado
Education
GenreHorror fiction
Notable worksThe Only Good Indians
My Heart Is a Chainsaw
Night of the Mannequins
Don't Fear the Reaper
SpouseNancy Jones
Children2

Stephen Graham Jones (born January 22, 1972) is a Blackfeet Native American author of experimental fiction, horror fiction,[1] crime fiction, and science fiction.[2][3][4] 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.[5][6]

Background

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Stephen Graham Jones was born in Midland, Texas, on January 22, 1972, to Dennis Jones and Rebecca Graham.[7] He is an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of Montana.[8]

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.[9] 

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.[10]

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.[11]

Writing career

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Jones at a 2014 book signing

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.[12] It was followed by All the Beautiful Sinners in 2003.

In 2002, Jones won a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in fiction.[13] 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.[14] He won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Long Fiction for Mapping the Interior in 2017.[15]

The Only Good Indians, a horror novel, was published on July 14, 2020, through Saga Press and Titan Books.[16] It won the Ray Bradbury Prize for Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction in 2020.[17] Jones won two 2020 Bram Stoker Awards for Night of the Mannequins and The Only Good Indians.[18]

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.[19]

Themes and style

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Jones has acknowledged a debt to Native American Renaissance writers, especially Gerald Vizenor.[20] Scholar Cathy Covell Waegner describes Jones's work as containing elements of "dark playfulness, narrative inventiveness, and genre mixture."[20] 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."[21]

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.'[22] His eighth novel, Ledfeather, which Jones stated was the most widely taught of his books,[23] 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.[24]

Personal life

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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.[25]

Awards

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Awards for Jones's writing[26]
Year Title Award Category Result Ref.
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 [27]
Shirley Jackson Award Collection Shortlisted
2015 After the People Lights Have Gone Off Bram Stoker Award Fiction Collection Shortlisted [28]
Shirley Jackson Award Collection Shortlisted
2016 Mongrels Bram Stoker Award Novel Shortlisted [29]
2017 Mapping the Interior Bram Stoker Award Long Fiction Won [30][31]
Mongrels Locus Award Horror Novel Nominated–9th
Shirley Jackson Award Novel Shortlisted
"The Night Cyclist" Shirley Jackson Award Novelette Shortlisted
2018 Mapping the Interior Shirley Jackson Award Novel Shortlisted
World Fantasy Award Novella Shortlisted
2020 Night of the Mannequins Bram Stoker Award Long Fiction Won [32][33]
Shirley Jackson Award Novella Won [34][35]
The Only Good Indians Audie Award Thriller/Suspense Shortlisted
Bram Stoker Award Novel Won [36][37]
Goodreads Choice Award Horror Nominated—5th [38]
Los Angeles Times Book Prize Ray Bradbury Prize Won
Shirley Jackson Award Novel Won [34][35]
2021 My Heart Is a Chainsaw Bram Stoker Award Novel Won [39][40]
The Only Good Indians Alex Award — Won [41]
British Fantasy Award Horror Novel Shortlisted
Dragon Award Horror Novel Shortlisted
Ignyte Award Adult Novel Shortlisted
Locus Award Horror Novel Nominated—2nd [42]
World Fantasy Award Novel Shortlisted [43]
"Wait for Night" Locus Award Short Story Nominated—10th
2022 My Heart Is a Chainsaw British Fantasy Award Horror Novel Shortlisted
Dragon Award Horror Novel Shortlisted
Locus Award Horror Novel Won
Shirley Jackson Award Novel Won [44][45]
2023 Don't Fear the Reaper Bram Stoker Award Novel Shortlisted
Shirley Jackson Award Novel Shortlisted
2024 British Fantasy Award Horror Novel Won [46]
Locus Award Horror Novel Nominated—5th

Selected works

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Books

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  • 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.[47]
  • The Only Good Indians. Saga, Simon & Schuster. 2020. ISBN 9781982136451.
  • 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.

Under the pseudonym P. T. Jones

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Short stories

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Comics

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  • Earthdivers, no. 1– (October 2022–present). IDW Publishing.[48]
  • 'Dear Final Girls' (2019) art by Jolyon Yates, originally published in the Horror Special issue of 'Wicked Awesome tales' edited by Todd Jones.[49]

References

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  1. ^ "Stephen Graham Jones on writing horror and its inverse, romance". Los Angeles Times. April 11, 2014. Archived from the original on February 25, 2015. Retrieved February 24, 2015.
  2. ^ Alexandra Alter (August 14, 2020). "'We've Already Survived an Apocalypse': Indigenous Writers Are Changing Sci-Fi". The New York Times. p. C1. Archived from the original on August 19, 2020. Retrieved August 19, 2020.
  3. ^ "Interview: Stephen Graham Jones on The Weird - Weird Fiction Review". Weird Fiction Review. January 16, 2012. Archived from the original on April 6, 2019. Retrieved February 24, 2015.
  4. ^ Jones, Stephen Graham. "Stephen Graham Jones – doesn't understand milk-drinking". Demon Theory.net. Archived from the original on March 16, 2019. Retrieved September 6, 2010.
  5. ^ "Stephen Graham Jones". English. June 19, 2018. Archived from the original on October 8, 2021. Retrieved October 8, 2021.
  6. ^ "Texas Archival Resources Online". txarchives.org. Archived from the original on November 22, 2021. Retrieved November 22, 2021.
  7. ^ "Jones, Stephen Graham 1972-". Encyclopedia.com. Archived from the original on October 2, 2022. Retrieved March 4, 2023.
  8. ^ Cosel, Pamela (October 22, 2020). "Texas Book Festival names Midland native Stephen Graham Jones winner of the Texas Writer Award". Round Rock Living. Archived from the original on March 28, 2022. Retrieved March 8, 2021.
  9. ^ MacDonald, Jay (April 20, 2021). "Rez Gothic: Stephen Graham Jones". The Montana Review.
  10. ^ "Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library". Texas Tech University. Archived from the original on October 20, 2021. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  11. ^ Press, Montana (April 20, 2021). "Rez Gothic: Stephen Graham Jones". Montana Press. Retrieved May 1, 2024.
  12. ^ "Interview with Stephen Graham Jones by Amy Patterson". October 8, 2018. Archived from the original on November 17, 2021. Retrieved November 17, 2021.
  13. ^ "Meet the Creative Writing Fellows: Stephen Jones". National Endowment for the Arts. Archived from the original on April 28, 2021. Retrieved April 28, 2021.
  14. ^ "1936-2021 Texas Institute of Letters: Awards" (PDF). Texas Institute of Letters. March 3, 2021. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 28, 2021. Retrieved April 28, 2021.
  15. ^ "2017 Bram Stoker Award® Winners & Nominees – The Bram Stoker Awards". Archived from the original on August 9, 2019. Retrieved August 8, 2019.
  16. ^ Jones, Stephen Graham (2020). The only good Indians : a novel. New York, New York: Gallery / Saga Press. ISBN 9781-9821-3645-1. OCLC 1105935531.
  17. ^ Pineda, Dorany (April 17, 2021). "Winners of the 2020 L.A. Times Book Prizes announced". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on April 17, 2021. Retrieved April 17, 2021.
  18. ^ "The Bram Stoker Awards 2020". Archived from the original on June 3, 2021. Retrieved April 28, 2021.
  19. ^ "Marvel's Voices Expands with 'Marvel's Voices: Indigenous Voices' #1". Marvel Entertainment. Archived from the original on August 23, 2020. Retrieved August 22, 2020.
  20. ^ a b Waegner, Cathy Covell (2017). "View of Consuming, Incarcerating, and "Transmoting" Misery: Border Practice in Vizenor's Bearheart and Jones's the Fast Red Road | Transmotion". Transmotion. 3 (2): 1–29. doi:10.22024/UniKent/03/tm.218. Archived from the original on September 14, 2018. Retrieved September 14, 2018.
  21. ^ Bas, Borja (November 20, 2023). "Stephen Graham Jones: The horror novel helps settle scores for the massacre of American Indians". EL PAÍS English. Retrieved July 9, 2024.
  22. ^ Gaudet, Joseph (2016). "I Remember You: Postironic Belief and Settler Colonialism in Stephen Graham Jones's Ledfeather". Studies in American Indian Literatures. 28 (1): 21. doi:10.5250/studamerindilite.28.1.0021. S2CID 156727460. Archived from the original on February 22, 2022. Retrieved October 8, 2018.
  23. ^ Wilson, Michael. "One Month of Reading Stephen Graham Jones: A Primer". LitReactor. Archived from the original on October 8, 2018. Retrieved October 8, 2018.
  24. ^ "Wonderbook Interview with Stephen Graham Jones". Wonderbook. October 11, 2013. Retrieved May 1, 2024.
  25. ^ Press, Montana (April 20, 2021). "Rez Gothic: Stephen Graham Jones". Montana Press. Retrieved May 1, 2024.
  26. ^ "Stephen Graham Jones Awards". Science Fiction Awards Database. Archived from the original on December 3, 2022. Retrieved March 4, 2023.
  27. ^ "2010 Bram Stoker Award Winners & Nominees". The Bram Stoker Awards. Archived from the original on June 4, 2022. Retrieved June 21, 2022.
  28. ^ "2014 Bram Stoker Awards Winners". Locus Online. May 10, 2015. Archived from the original on July 9, 2022. Retrieved July 9, 2022.
  29. ^ "2016 Bram Stoker Award Winners & Nominees". The Bram Stoker Awards. Archived from the original on June 13, 2022. Retrieved June 21, 2022.
  30. ^ "2017 Stoker Awards Winners". Locus Online. March 5, 2018. Archived from the original on July 6, 2022. Retrieved July 6, 2022.
  31. ^ "Announcing the 2017 Bram Stoker Awards Winners". Tor.com. March 5, 2018. Archived from the original on November 28, 2020. Retrieved July 6, 2022.
  32. ^ Templeton, Molly (June 1, 2021). "Announcing the 2020 Bram Stoker Awards Winners". Tor.com. Archived from the original on July 7, 2021. Retrieved July 6, 2022.
  33. ^ "2020 Stoker Awards Winners". Locus Online. May 24, 2021. Archived from the original on August 11, 2022. Retrieved July 6, 2022.
  34. ^ a b "Shirley Jackson Awards Winners". Locus Online. August 16, 2021. Archived from the original on October 18, 2022. Retrieved March 2, 2023.
  35. ^ a b Liptak, Andrew (August 16, 2021). "Announcing the Winners of the 2020 Shirley Jackson Awards!". Tor.com. Archived from the original on August 12, 2022. Retrieved March 2, 2023.
  36. ^ Templeton, Molly (June 1, 2021). "Announcing the 2020 Bram Stoker Awards Winners". Tor.com. Archived from the original on July 7, 2021. Retrieved July 6, 2022.
  37. ^ "2020 Stoker Awards Winners". Locus Online. May 24, 2021. Archived from the original on August 11, 2022. Retrieved July 6, 2022.
  38. ^ "Announcing the Goodreads Choice Winner in Best Horror!". Goodreads. Retrieved October 24, 2024.
  39. ^ "2021 Stoker Awards Winners". Locus Online. May 15, 2022. Archived from the original on July 4, 2022. Retrieved July 6, 2022.
  40. ^ Armstrong, Vanessa (May 17, 2022). "Congratulations to the 2021 Bram Stoker Awards Winners!". Tor.com. Archived from the original on June 28, 2022. Retrieved July 6, 2022.
  41. ^ Young Adult Library Services Association (February 27, 2012). "Alex Awards". American Library Association. Retrieved May 4, 2021.
  42. ^ "2021 Locus Awards Winners". Locus Online. June 26, 2021. Retrieved September 15, 2021.
  43. ^ Community (July 22, 2021). "2021 World Fantasy Awards Finalists Announced". BOOK RIOT. Retrieved September 15, 2021.
  44. ^ "2021 Shirley Jackson Awards Winners". Locus Online. October 31, 2022. Archived from the original on November 30, 2022. Retrieved March 2, 2023.
  45. ^ "2021 Shirley Jackson Awards Winners". Locus Online. October 31, 2022. Archived from the original on November 30, 2022. Retrieved March 2, 2023.
  46. ^ "2024 British Fantasy Awards Winners". Locus Magazine. October 14, 2024. Retrieved November 23, 2024.
  47. ^ Liptak, Andrew (February 22, 2021). "Here Are the 2020 Bram Stoker Award Nominees". Tor.com. Archived from the original on May 6, 2021. Retrieved March 23, 2021.
  48. ^ Gayen, Sayantan (August 25, 2022). "Review: IDW Publishing's Earthdivers #1". CBR. Valnet Inc. Archived from the original on September 7, 2022. Retrieved September 7, 2022.
  49. ^ "Dear Final Girls". jolyonbyates.com.

Further reading

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