J.R. JONES is a freelance writer who, from 2008 to 2018, served as film critic for the Chicago Reader. A member of the National Society of Film Critics, he has won awards from the Chicago Headline Club and the Association of Alternative Newsmedia. His book The Lives of Robert Ryan, a biography of the movie actor and political activist, was published in 2015 by Wesleyan University Press.

Over the years Jones has written for Amsterdam Weekly, Chicago magazine, the Chicago Sun-Times, East Bay Express, Kenyon Review, Living Lutheran, New York Press, Noir City, and Perisphere. His Chicago Reader story “Prove It All Night” was selected by Peter Guralnick for the anthology Da Capo Best Music Writing 2000.

In other media Jones been a guest/contributor on ABCNews.com, WTTW Chicago, CLTV Chicago, and WGN Radio. He has spoken at the Chicago Cultural Center, the Chicago International Film Festival, Columbia College Chicago, Facets Cinematheque, the Gene Siskel Film Center, the Music Box Theatre, and Northwestern University Block Museum of Art. His promotional tour for The Lives of Robert Ryan included appearances at Anthology Film Archives in New York, Printers Row Lit Fest in Chicago, Larry Edmunds Bookshop in Los Angeles, the Arthur Lyons Film Noir Festival in Palm Springs, and the Cinematheque at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

After more than 30 years in Chicago, Jones moved to Minneapolis in 2023.

Click here for a chronology of publications.

J.R. Jones visits the Deerfield Public Library podcast.