Tom Ryan

Tom Ryan is an award-winning author of books for young readers. Ryan was born and raised in Inverness, Nova Scotia, and is a graduate of Mount Allison University and NSCC.

Since 2012, Ryan has published several books for young readers of all ages. He has been nominated for the White Pine Award, the Stellar Award and the Hackmatack Award, and two of his books - Totally Unrelated and Big Time - were Junior Library Guild selections. Two of his young adult novels, Way to Go and Tag Along, were chosen for the ALA Rainbow List, in 2013 and 2014. In 2017, on the occasion of Canada’s 150th birthday, his first novel, Way to Go, was chosen as one of the most significant books in Nova Scotia’s history. He was a 2017 Lambda Literary Fellow in Young Adult Fiction. His 2019 release Keep This to Yourself was the recipient of the 2020 Arthur Ellis Award for YA Crime Book and the 2020 ITW Award for Best YA Thriller, and was also nominated for the Amy Mathers Teen Book Award and the John Spray Mystery Award. Keep This to Yourself was also chosen by the Globe & Mail as one of the ‘Globe 100: Books that shaped 2019’ as well as being named one of 2019’s top books for young readers by Quill & Quire and one of the best books of the decade by the Canadian Children’s Book Centre.

Ryan, his husband and their dog live in Nova Scotia.