Neil is an award-winning writer whose work appears in National Geographic, the Virginia Quarterly Review, and The American Scholar, among other publications. He also works in film, television, and audio, and his recent investigative podcast, Unfinished: Deep South, was nominated for a Peabody Award.
For more than 15 years Neil has worked around the world, writing on conflict, cultural change and environmental upheaval. Between 2006 and 2015, he covered the War on Terror in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kurdistan. His work now focuses on the transformation of the far north, and he is currently writing his first book, about the Arctic, forthcoming from Ecco in 2025. He is also developing several documentary and scripted projects for film and television in collaboration with Market Road Films, the company founded by two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage and Emmy-winning director Tony Gerber.
Neil is the recipient of numerous awards and grants, recently including one from the Pulitzer Center for his work on the mysterious decline of Arctic caribou. In 2022 he was the John D. And Katherine T. MacArthur Foundation resident at Yaddo. In 2021 he was a storyteller-in-residence at Denison University.
Neil has a master's degree in journalism and he has taught courses at The University of the South, Boston University, and Furman University. A long time ago, he worked as a wilderness guide. He lives in Brooklyn with his partner, Taylor Hom, and their two children.