Neil Shepard (January 29, 1951 in Fitchburg, Massachusetts) is an American poet, essayist, professor of creative writing, and literary magazine editor.

[6] Shepard was for a quarter-century the Senior Editor of the literary magazine Green Mountains Review.

[11][12][13] Shepard's first creative writing teacher was David Huddle, poet and short story writer at the University of Vermont.

He accompanied Riley to the Marquesas Islands, where she conducted her fieldwork on language and culture, and eventually Shepard wrote the Marquesan poems that appear in his second book I'm Here Because I Lost My Way.

[16] Shepard's extensive travel, including year-long sojourns in Shanghai, China (1991), the Marquesas Islands in the South Pacific (1993), and France (2003)[11][16] have also influenced his work.