Neil Smith (writer)

Neil Smith is a fiction writer who lives in Montreal, the city where he was born. His most recent book, a novel called Boo, came out in May 2015 with Random House imprints in America, Britain, and Canada. The book is narrated by a young science geek named Oliver Dalrymple who finds himself in a heaven reserved exclusively for 13-year-olds. In addition to English, Boo has been published in traditional Chinese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, and Portuguese. Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Quill & Quire all gave the book starred reviews. The novel won the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and was nominated for a Sunburst Award, an Alex Award, and the Canadian Library Association Young Adult Book Award.

Smith published his debut, the story collection Bang Crunch, in Canada in 2007. It later came out in America, Britain, France, Germany, and India. It was chosen as a best book of the year by the Washington Post and the Globe and Mail, won the First Book Prize from the Quebec Writers' Federation, and picked up nominations for a Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book and the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. Three stories in the book were also nominated for the Journey Prize. Writer Michel Faber wrote in the Guardian that Bang Crunch had a "rare fusion of thematic boldness, humor, gravity, empathy, maturity, and first-rate prose."

Smith also translates from French to English and was nominated in 2016 for a Governor General's Literary Award for The Goddess of Fireflies, his translation of Geneviève Pettersen's novel La déesse des mouches à feu.