Horror writer Stephen Graham Jones invites readers to graft their own nightmares onto his monsters. Alina Art/Tor Publishing Group hide caption

Alina Art/Tor Publishing Group

Stephen Graham Jones never intended to be a writer.

"I only planned to drive a tractor and be a farmer," he says.

Jones, a member of the Blackfeet Nation from Midland, Texas, saw either oil fields or cornfields in his future. But he always knew he had the chops to tell a good story.

"I was always spilling Kool-Aid on the couch and telling my mom a story that my little brother did it," he says.…