Petra Mayer
Petra Mayer died on November 13, 2021. She has been remembered by friends and colleagues, including all of us at NPR. The Petra Mayer Memorial Fund for Internships has been created in her honor.
Petra Mayer (she/her) was an editor (and the resident nerd) at NPR Books, focusing on fiction, and particularly genre fiction. She brought to the job passion, speed-reading skills, and a truly impressive collection of Doctor Who doodads. You could also hear her on the air and on the occasional episode of Pop Culture Happy Hour.
Prior to her role at NPR Books, 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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The prolific fantasy and horror author says that reading stories about people who don't look like us is how we learn empathy; she makes a point of writing characters who reflect different experiences.
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The Association for Library Service to Children has voted to rename its Laura Ingalls Wilder award for children's literature, after complaints about Wilder's portrayal of Native Americans.
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Our famous Summer Reader Poll lurches to life, dripping grave-dirt and bits of glowing green, ready to hear all about your favorite horror novels and stories. What sends a shiver down your spine?
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The Swedish Academy — the body that awards Nobel Prizes — has announced that the literature prize will not be given this year. The decision follows a spate of infighting and allegations of sexual misconduct against the husband of an Academy member.
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Author Ursula K. Le Guin has died at age 88. She was a prolific writer of science fiction and fantasy who brought feminism into her work and raised the genres into literature.
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NPR launches its 2017 Book Concierge on Tuesday, pulling together a year's worth of favorite reads from staff and critics. NPR Books editor Petra Mayer talks about some of this year's selections.
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The Book Concierge is back and bigger than ever! Explore more than 350 standout titles picked by NPR staff and critics.
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What's the best way to get people reading comics? Hook 'em young. And comics for early readers are booming — even big publishers like DC, famed for grim and gritty, are getting in on the action.
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Author Paula Hawkins was down on her luck when her 2015 book The Girl on the Train became a smash hit. Now she's grappling with success and preparing to launch her followup, Into the Water.
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Books make great last minute gift ideas. Here are a few tips for book shoppers with voids still to fill, helped by NPR's Book Concierge.
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NPR Books editor Petra Mayer was in the Manhattan neighborhood on Saturday when she saw what looked like a pressure cooker on the sidewalk. Suddenly she found herself at the heart of the night's news.
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The house Alan Moore was born in was torn down in 1969 — along with most of the rest of his neighborhood. But in his new novel, Jerusalem, the legendary comics creator brings it all back to life.