Jones was born on November 23, 1949, to Franklin and Lucille Jones. Her father was a cook and her mother a homemaker and writer.[4] Jones grew up in Speigle Heights, a neighborhood of Lexington, Kentucky, in a house with no indoor toilet.[4] Jones grew up in a storytelling family: Her grandmother wrote plays for her church, and her mother constantly made up stories to entertain the children and other family members.[4] Jones recalled, "I began to write when I was seven, because I saw my mother writing, and because she would read stories to my brother and me, stories that she had written".[7] Although she was described as painfully shy, many of Jones's elementary school instructors recognized her writing skills and encouraged her talent to grow.[8]
Jones first attended segregated schools but for high school enrolled as one of the few Black students at Henry Clay High School.[4] She was academically successful and earned a recommendation, through writer Elizabeth Hardwick, to Connecticut College.[4] There she became a student of poets William Meredith and Robert Hayden.[4] She graduated in 1971,[1] receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree in English. While attending the college she also earned the Frances Steloff Award for Fiction.[4] She then began a graduate program in creative writing at Brown University, studying under poet Michael Harper and earning a Master of Arts in 1973 and a Doctor of Arts in 1975.[9]
