Shelby Hearon (January 18, 1931 – December 10, 2016) was an American novelist and short story writer.

She attended the University of Texas at Austin, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1953.

Armadillo in the Grass, her first novel, was begun in 1962 and accepted for publication by Knopf in 1967.

Five of her short stories were awarded NEA/PEN syndication Short Story Prizes and she received a NEA Creative Writing Fellowship.

Her novel Owning Jolene won an American Academy of Arts and Letters Literature Award.