Tom McNeal (born November 1947 in Santa Ana, California) is an American novelist and short story writer.
Tom McNeal was educated at the University of California and Stanford University, where he was a Stegner Fellow and Jones Lecturer. He spent parts of boyhood summers at the Nebraska farm where his mother was born and raised, and later taught school in the nearby town that was the inspiration for his first novel, Goodnight, Nebraska, which won the James A. Michener Prize and the California Book Award. To Be Sung Underwater, his second novel, is set in both in California and Nebraska, and was named one of the 5 Best Novels of the Year by USA Today.
His short fiction has been included in Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Prize Collection and The Pushcart Prize Collection, and "What Happened to Tully," which first appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, was made into the movie Tully. Additionally, with his wife, Laura Rhoton McNeal, he has co-authored four YA novels (Crooked; Zipped; Crushed; The Decoding of Lana Morris), all published by Knopf.
Far Far Away, his newest book for younger readers, was published in 2013 and was a National Book Award finalist, Edgar Award finalist, winner of the California Book Award, winner of the Southern California Independent Booksellers Award, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, a Horn Book Fanfare Best book of the Year, and an ALA-YALSA Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults.
Tom lives in Coronado, California with his wife Laura, their sons Sam and Hank and the family mini-dachshund Link.