NPR Books Editor, Petra Mayer

Petra Mayer 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 of 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.

Useful Links 

The most recent Concierge, which links to all the past years:  

https://apps.npr.org/best-books/#view=covers&year=2019

A couple of summer polls: 

https://www.npr.org/series/729710522/summer-reader-poll-2019-funny-books and 

https://www.npr.org/series/617220176/summer-reader-poll-2018-horror

Life Kit/How To Write A Book: 

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/27/845797464/if-youve-always-wanted-to-write-a-book-here-s-how

Reading the Game: https://www.npr.org/series/510664099/reading-the-game

NK Jemisin on worldbuilding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6xyFQhbsjQ or find the PDF here: http://nkjemisin.com/2015/08/worldbuilding-101/

Listen on any of these platforms