Edward Paul Jones (born October 5, 1950) is an American novelist and short story writer.

He became popular for writing about the African-American experience in the United States, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the International Dublin Literary Award for The Known World (2003).

Journalist Neely Tucker described Jones in The Washington Post as "arguably the greatest fiction writer the nation's capital has ever produced".

[6] The family resided in a series of impoverished shacks and tenements northwest of D.C.'s center, ultimately moving place-to-place 18 times in 18 years.

[8] At the age of five, Jones was sent to a Catholic school, where his performance enabled him to skip a grade, but his mother could not afford the tuition and withdrew him.

[12] He wrote for the school newspaper, The Crusader, and was a member of the college's Black Student Union along with classmates Clarence Thomas, Ted Wells, and Ed Jenkins.

[15] In 1979, Jones entered the University of Virginia to pursue graduate studies in creative writing, receiving a Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)

[18]In the spring and fall semesters of 2009, Jones was a visiting professor of creative writing at the George Washington University.