Robin Jones was born in Boulder, Colorado and grew up in Warrensburg, Missouri.  She received her B.A. from St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1984, and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Colorado at Boulder, the latter in 1996.  She has taught at CU Boulder, Regis College in Denver, Santa Fe Community College, University of New Mexico at Albuquerque, and Institute of American Indian Arts.  Her classes have included Black American and Jewish American writers, Multi-cultural American literature, classes on women writers, and American literature survey courses.

She has written books about Black American culture and history for children and has collaborated on photography books, Four and Twenty Photographs: Stories From Behind the Lens and the forthcoming Ghost Ranch and the Faraway Nearby.  She lives and writes in Santa Fe, New Mexico with her husband and daughter.