David Gates (born January 8, 1947) is an American journalist and novelist. His first novel, Jernigan (1991), about a dysfunctional one-parent family, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1992 and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. This was followed by a second novel, Preston Falls (1998), and a short story collection, The Wonders of the Invisible World (1999). He has published short stories in" The New Yorker", "Tin House", "Newsweek", "The New York Times Book Review", Bookforum, "Rolling Stone", H.O.W, "The Oxford American", The Journal of Country Music, Esquire magazine, Ploughshares, GQ, Grand Street, TriQuarterly, and The Paris Review. Gates is also a Guggenheim Fellow.

Until 2008, he was a senior writer and editor in the Arts section at Newsweek magazine, specializing in articles on books and music.

He teaches in the graduate writing program at The University of Montana as well as at the Bennington Writing Seminars. Here he is a member of the Dog House Band, performing on the guitar, pedal steel, and vocals.