Anthony John McGowan (born January 1965) is an English author of books for children, teenagers and adults. He has been twice longlisted (for The Knife That Killed Me in 2008 and Brock in 2014) and twice shortlisted (for Rook in 2018 and Lark in 2020) for the CILIP Carnegie Medal, and is the winner of the 2006 Booktrust Teenage Prize for Henry Tumour.
McGowan wrote his first book, the Gory and violent Abandon Hope, while working as a civil servant, but it was rejected by every publisher to which he sent it. When his wife Rebecca Campbell (then working as a fashion designer and executive) wrote a successful novel about the fashion industry, her agent offered to take McGowan on as a client, as well, on condition that he write something "saner" and "more commercial".
His adult thriller Stag Hunt was published by Hodder & Stoughton in 2004 and received positive reviews. But then a mistake was made printing the barcode on the paperback edition, and all the copies had to be recalled. Paperback sales tanked as a result, and his career as an adult novelist stalled.
He would return to the genre in 2007 after finding success as a young adult author: his second adult thriller Mortal Coil (2007), was described by Kirkus Reviews as "a shady and literate thriller that oozes down-and-out ambiance."
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