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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Copies of Shakespeare's first folio are some of the rarest books in the world — only about 230 copies survive. Surprisingly, another copy has been rediscovered in a public library in northern France.
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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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The trademark illustrations in The Wall Street Journal look like engravings. But they're actually intricate pointilist portraits. Petra Mayer visits stipple artist Noli Novak at her New Jersey studio.
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Her mother once told her she'd be disowned if she ever bought a motorcycle. But that didn't stop NPR's Petra Mayer from checking out the International Motorcycle Show in Washington, D.C., and sending an audio postcard. -
One of the last novelty-item factories in the country, the S.S. Adams Company in Neptune, New Jersey, manufactures joy buzzers, whoopee cushions, and cans of jumping snakes. Mark Newgarden, author of Cheap Laffs: The Art of the Novelty Item, and NPR's Petra Mayer take a tour.
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By running a 1997 Chevy van on old vegetable oil, the funk band Patio Kings saves money and the environment during a 25-city tour. NPR's Petra Mayer takes a ride on the van.
