Jones was born in Manchester, England. Education at a convent school was followed by an undergraduate degree in European history of ideas at the University of Sussex. She has written for younger readers since 1980 under the pseudonym Ann Halam and, under that name, to date has published more than twenty novels. In 1984 Divine Endurance, a science fiction novel for adults, was published under her own name. She continues to write using these two names for the respective audiences.

Jones' works are mostly science fiction and near future high fantasy with strong themes of gender and feminism. She is the winner of two World Fantasy Awards, BSFA short story award, Children of the Night Award from the Dracula Society, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Philip K. Dick Award and co-winner of the James Tiptree, Jr. Award. She is generally well-reviewed critically and, as a feminist science fiction writer, is often compared to Ursula K. Le Guin, though the two authors are very much distinct in both content and style of work.

Gwyneth Jones lives in Brighton, England, with her husband and son.

Novels

Fiction collections

• Identifying the Object. Austin, TX: Swan Press, 1993 (paper). No ISBN
• Seven Tales and a Fable. Cambridge, MA: Edgewood Press, 1995 (paper). ISBN 0-9629066-5-4
• Grazing the Long Acre. Hornsea: PS Publishing, 2009. ISBN 978-1906301569
• The Buonarotti Quartet. Seattle, WA: Aqueduct Press, 2009 (paper).

Non-fiction

• Deconstructing the Starships: Science, Fiction and Reality. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-85323-783-2
• Imagination / Space. Seattle, WA: Aqueduct Press, 2009 (paper).