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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The latest book in J.K. Rowling's series, really a script for a play, "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child," went on sale at midnight. We check in with fans who lined up, wands in hand, to get a copy.
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As the launch of the upcoming film coincides with the heroine's Comic-Con fandom, Wonder Woman appears to be hooking new fans for the same reasons she was birthed in 1941: justice, peace and feminism.
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At this year's San Diego Comic-Con, one of the biggest phenomena isn't just inside the convention center, it's all around: Swarms of people staring at their phones as they play Pokémon Go.
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The PEN/Allen award is given annually to big-name authors who embody the organization's mission "to oppose repression in any form." Rowling is a frequent target — and vocal opponent — of censorship.
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Matt de la Peña becomes the first Hispanic author to win the Newbery award for children's literature, while the Caldecott picture-book prize went to a book about the real-life Winnie the Pooh.
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Beverly Jenkins writes historical romances — about free black towns, lawmen and cowboys and Civil War vets. She says her mission is to illuminate the parts of black history you don't learn in school.
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Nicole Perlman was the first woman to get a writing credit on a Marvel Studios movie, last year's Guardians of the Galaxy. Now, she's taking on a more earthly challenge: Writing her first comic book.
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After is an epic, erotic fan fiction loosely based on the British boy band One Direction. It's being republished by Simon & Schuster, which is hoping the story's online fans will buy it in book form.
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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.
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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.