Petra Mayer
Petra Mayer (she/her) is an editor (and the resident nerd) at NPR Books, focusing on fiction, and particularly genre fiction. She brings to the job passion, speed-reading skills, and a truly impressive collection of Doctor Who doodads. You can also hear her on the air and on the occasional episode of Pop Culture Happy Hour.
Previously, she was an associate producer and director for All Things Considered on the weekends. She handled all of the show's books coverage, and she was also the person to ask if you wanted to know how much snow falls outside NPR's Washington headquarters on a Saturday, how to belly dance, or what pro wrestling looks like up close and personal.
Mayer originally came to NPR as an engineering assistant in 1994, while still attending Amherst College. After three years spending summers honing her soldering skills in the maintenance shop, she made the jump to Boston's WBUR as a newswriter in 1997. Mayer returned to NPR in 2000 after a roundabout journey that included a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University and a two-year stint as an audio archivist and producer at the Prague headquarters of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. She still knows how to solder.
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NPR's Petra Mayer sees the sights at San Diego Comic-Con with Magicians Trilogy author Lev Grossman — and discusses what happens when wizardly kids have to face an adult world, without mentors. -
There's a vibrant collecting community for old 78rpm records, ancestors of today's iTunes single. Music writer Amanda Petrusich got sucked in while writing her new book, Do Not Sell at Any Price.
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It's been a long and winding road for the '57 Chevy station wagon at the heart of Earl Swift's new book Auto Biography. Swift traces the car through 13 owners and a dramatic restoration attempt. -
NPR's Petra Mayer profiles YA author Ann Brashares, whose new book The Here and Now follows a young girl and her community who've escaped a terrible future via time travel and landed in our present.
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In laid-back Key West, most people get around by bike. So NPR's Petra Mayer had to learn. -
NPR staff and critics selected more than 200 standout titles. Now it's up to you: Choose your own adventure! Use our tags to search through books and find the perfect read.
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Graphic novelist Gene Luen Yang's new book, Boxers & Saints, has been nominated for a National Book Award. It's the tale of a young Chinese boy and girl whose lives are upended by the Boxer Rebellion. Yang tells NPR's Petra Mayer that he was inspired by the controversial canonization of several Chinese saints in 2000. -
Jo Baker's Longbourn retells the events of Pride and Prejudice from the point of view of the servants. Baker tells NPR Books editor Petra Mayer that the predicament of the Bennet sisters is well-known, so she wanted to explore the situation of the servant girls with no father, home or dowry.
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Lizzie Skurnick has written for and about teens, and now she's venturing into publishing, with a new imprint dedicated to beloved and forgotten young adult novels. Skurnick says classic YA isn't just about fluffy romance; these are books about real life, which deserve to be preserved and celebrated. -
Hugh Howey is the author of the dystopian WOOL series, about a future in which the remains of humanity are living underground in giant self-sustaining silos. The first volume of WOOL was a self-publishing sensation; the latest volume, Dust, has just been released.
