Jones is a recipient of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Debut Fiction,[40] the Lifetime Achievement Award in Fine Arts[41] from the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, the United States Artist Fellowship,[42] the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship,[43] and the Radcliffe Institute Bunting Fellowship.[44] Her novel, Silver Sparrow, was added to the NEA Big Read Library[45] of classics in 2016. She is also a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers[46] and was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame in 2018.[8]
In February 2018, Oprah Winfrey announced that her latest book club pick was Jones’s novel An American Marriage. Winfrey said, "It's one of those books I could not put down. And as soon as I did, I called up the author, and said, 'I've got to talk to you about this story.'"[47]
On June 5, An American Marriage was announced as the winner of the 2019 Women's Prize for Fiction.[48]
