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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Nesmith rose to fame as one of the Pre-Fab Four — but he had a long and influential career after the Monkees. He helped invent the format that became MTV, and produced the cult film Repo Man. -
Books We Love (formerly known as NPR's Book Concierge) is back with a new name and 360+ new books handpicked just for you by NPR staff and trusted critics. -
Shortages of paper and cardboard — plus issues with warehouse and shipping capacity — are causing havoc in the publishing industry right before the holiday shopping season kicks into gear.
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Chuck Close, who was known for his giant photorealist portraits of friends and colleagues in the art world, has died at the age of 81. Late in life, Close faced accusations of sexual harassment. -
Erdrich's novel — about a Chippewa tribal elder working as a night watchman while battling government efforts to the tribe's treaties and land ownership rights — was based on her own grandfather. -
The singer says she was offered the honor by the Trump administration but was unable to accept, first because her husband was ill and then because the pandemic made traveling to the ceremony unsafe. -
The bestselling author of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy died Saturday at age 89; his work was informed by his own years as a spy during the Cold War. -
This year's National Book Awards — announced in a first-ever virtual streaming ceremony — went mostly to writers of color, as the foundation that gives the prizes vowed to be more inclusive.
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Aspen Words — part of the Aspen Institute — has announced the longlist for this year's Aspen Words Literary Prize. The $35,000 award recognizes fiction that "illuminates a vital contemporary issue." -
The 2020 Nobel Prize in literature was awarded to U.S. poet Louise Glück "for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal."
