Tom McNeal

Tom McNeal (born 1947) is an American novelist and short story writer.

Life

Tom McNeal was born and raised in Santa Ana, California, but he spent part of every summer at the farm in Northwest Nebraska where his mother grew up. After earning a BA in English at UC Berkeley and an MFA in Creative Writing at UC Irvine, he lived and worked in the region of Nebraska that inspired his critically acclaimed novels, Goodnight, Nebraska and To Be Sung Underwater. McNeal has been a Wallace Stegner Fellow and a Jones Lecturer at Stanford University and is the recipient of the James Michener prize and two California Book Awards. His short stories have been widely anthologized, and "What Happened to Tully" was the basis of the award-winning independent film: Tully (2000). His solo young adult novel, Far Far Away, which is narrated by the ghost of Jacob Grimm, was a finalist for the National Book Award and an Edgar in 2013. He has written four young adult novels in collaboration with his wife, Laura Rhoton McNeal: Crooked, Zipped, Crushed, and The Decoding of Lana Morris, all published by Knopf. The McNeals are also the authors of a picture book: The Dog Who Lost His Bob.

Awards

• James Michener Prize (Goodnight, Nebraska)
• Three-time winner of the California Book Award (for Crooked, Goodnight, Nebraska, and Far Far Away)
• PEN Center USA Literary Award for Children's Literature
• Nebraska Book Award in Fiction 2012 (To Be Sung Underwater)
• National Book Award Finalist (Far Far Away)
• Edgar Allen Poe Mystery Award Finalist (Far Far Away)

Novels and Short Stories

• Far Far Away Knopf 2013 ISBN 978-0375843297
• To Be Sung Underwater Hachette 2011 ISBN 9780316127387
• California's Best: Two Centuries of Great Writing from the Golden State 2009 Edited by Peter Fish, Far Country Press ISBN 978-1560374947
• The Decoding of Lana Morris (with co-author Laura McNeal) Knopf 2007 ISBN 978-0375831225
• Crushed (with Laura McNeal) Knopf 2005 ISBN 978-0375831218
• "Watermelon Days" Zoetrope: All Storyhttp://www.all-story.com/issues.cgi?action=show_story&story_id=130&part=all
• Best American Short Stories 2002 ("Watermelon Days") Mariner Books ISBN 978-0618131730
• Zipped (with Laura McNeal) Knopf 2000 ISBN 978-0375830983
• Goodnight, Nebraska Random House 1998 ISBN 9780375704291
• Crooked (with Laura McNeal) Knopf 1998 ISBN 978-0375841910
• "What Happened to Tully" Prize Stories 1992: The O. Henry Awards Anchor Press ISBN 978-0385421928
• The Dog Who Lost His Bob (with Laura McNeal) Albert Whitman 1996 ISBN 978-0807516621

Internet page: http://mcnealbooks.com/home.aspx