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.
Tom McNeal was educated at the University of California and Stanford University, where he was a Stegner Fellow and Jones Lecturer.
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 United States of America Today. Far Far Away Knopf 2013
To Be Sung Underwater Hachette 2011
California"s Best: Two Centuries of Great Writing from the Golden State 2009 Edited by Peter Fish, Far Country Press
The Decoding of Lana Morris (with co-author Laura McNeal) Knopf 2007
Crushed (with Laura McNeal) Knopf 2005
"Watermelon Days" Zoetrope: All Story
Best American Short Stories 2002 ("Watermelon Days") Mariner Books
Zipped (with Laura McNeal) Knopf 2000
Goodnight, Nebraska Random House 1998
Crooked (with Laura McNeal) Knopf 1998
The Dog Who Lost His Bob (with Laura McNeal) Albert Whitman 1996
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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. 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 American Library Association-YALSA Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults. "What Happened to Tully" Prize Stories 1992: The O. Henry Awards Anchor Press.
