John Sandford, born John Roswell Camp on February 23, 1944, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is a Pulitzer-winning American journalist and novelist. He is best known for the Prey series of novels.

Sandford attended the public schools in Cedar Rapids, graduating from Washington High School in 1962. He then spent four years at the University of Iowa, graduating with a bachelor's degree in American Studies in 1966. In 1966, he married Susan Lee Jones, a fellow student at the University of Iowa.

He served in the U.S. Army from 1966 to 1968, worked as a reporter for the Cape Girardeau Southeast Missourian from 1968 to 1970, and returned to the University of Iowa in 1970, where he received a master's degree in journalism.

Sandford worked as a reporter for The Miami Herald from 1971 to 1978, and then for the St. Paul Pioneer-Press from 1978 to 1990. In 1980, he was asked to write the Prey series under the pseudonym John Sandford, and with its popularity, he continued to use the same pseudonym for subsequent novels, including sequels to his earlier Kidd novels.