Walter Jones

Raised in Chicago, Walter Jones studied at Howard University before spending time in New York City and later settling in California. Along the way he worked a range of jobs, experiences that shaped the grounded, human perspective in his fiction.

His novel BLUE began as he wrote about the African American life of his youth. In describing the beauty, strength, and brilliance he remembered, he came to see the book as a way of rebuilding a deeper love of self and humanity.

That blend of lived experience and reflection gives his work an intimate, personal feel. Rather than writing from a distance, he draws on the places he has lived and the life he has actually known.