Parneshia Jones was born on the Midwestern coast and raised in juke joints and the church. She grew  up in Evanston most of her life and graduated from Evanston Township High School. A member of the Affrilachian Poets, her awards include The Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award and the Margaret Walker Short Story Award.

Parneshia has been published in several anthologies including: Warpland: A Journal of Black Literature and Ideas and Limestone: A Journal of Art and Literature. She has a MFA from Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky and is working on her first full-length collection of poetry, Compasses and Juke Joints. She is the International Rights and Marketing Manager at Northwestern University Press.