John Oliver Killens (January 14, 1916 – October 27, 1987) was an American fiction writer from Georgia whose novels of African-American life received two Pulitzer Prize nominations.

Killens enlisted in the army during World War II, serving as a member of the Pacific amphibious forces from 1942 to 1945. He spent more than two years in the South Pacific, and rose to the rank of master sergeant.[1]

His first novel, Youngblood (1954), dealing with a black Georgia family in the early 1900s, was read and developed at HWG meetings in members' homes.[3] His second novel, And Then We Heard the Thunder (1962), was about the treatment of the black soldiers in the military; it was named by critic Noel Perrin as one of five major works of fiction of World War II.[3] It was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. His third novel, Sippi (1967), focused on the voting rights struggles by African Americans during the 1960s.