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Thomas Francis McGuane III is an American writer. He was born in Wyandotte, Michigan, on December 11, 1939, to Thomas Francis McGuane Jr. and Alice (Torphy) McGuane. He attended the Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hill, Michigan, for his primary education. McGuane received a B.A. in English in 1962 from Michigan State University, an M.F.A. in playwriting and dramatic literature from Yale University in 1965, and a Wallace Stegner Fellowship to Stanford University from 1966 to 1967.

As of 2023, McGuane published ten novels, four short story collections, five screenplays, and six collections of essays. McGuane first received recognition for his debut novel, The Sporting Club, published in 1969. He also received acclaim for his novels The Bushwacked Paino (1971) and Ninety-Two in the Shade (1973), the latter of which was nominated for a National Book Award. In the 1970s he made notable forays into cinema, writing screenplays for the films Rancho Deluxe (1975), the film adaptation of 92 in the Shade (1975), and Missouri Breaks (1976).

McGuane has also contributed numerous essays and short stories to magazines like Esquire and The New Yorker. His essays and stories have also appeared in anthologies like The Best American Sports Writing, The Best American Essays, and The Best American Short Stories.

McGuane moved to Livingston, Montana in the late 1960s, splitting his time between Montana and Key West, Florida. He continued to reside in Montana, living for a time in the Paradise Valley before he relocated to a ranch outside of McLeod, Montana on the Boulder River. His fiction and non-fiction reflect the influence of his life in Montana. McGuane's fiction is largely set in the American west, and Montana in particular, and focuses on themes of rural working-class life, ranching, and small-town drama. McGuane's non-fiction predominantly focuses on his life outdoors and his interests in fly fishing, bird hunting, bird dogs, and raising horses.

McGuane received an honorary doctorate from Montana State University in 1993. He also received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement, which was presented to him at the 1993 Academy of Achievement Summit in Glacier National Park. He was a finalist of the 2013 National Magazine Award for his story "River Camp," a finalist for the 2015 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award for "Gallatin Canyon," and recipient of the 2016 Los Angeles Times Robert Kirch Award for lifetime achievement. In addition to his awards for writing, McGuane has been a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and was also inducted into the National Cutting Horse Association Hall of Fame in 2005 and the American Museum of Fly Fishing Hall of Fame in 2017.

McGuane has three children. His son Thomas McGuane IV was born to his first wife Portia Rebecca "Becky" Crockett in 1967. McGuane and Crockett were married from 1962 to 1975. His daughter Margaret Kidder McGuane was born in 1975 to his second wife Margo Kidder to whom McGuane was married for less than a year between 1976 and 1977. His daughter Anne Buffet McGuane was born to his third wife Laurie (Buffet) McGuane in 1979, who he married in 1977.