Robert Mayer, author
Books and workshops
Biography
Robert Mayer was never a Green Beret and is not a hotel in Germany.
Born in the Bronx, N.Y., Mayer attended the City College of NY, and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where he was awarded a Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship. After a brief stint at the Washington Post, he joined the staff of Newsday. He spent ten years there, six as a reporter and four as the paper’s New York City columnist.
In 1968 he won the National Headliner Award as the best feature columnist in the country. In 1969 he won the Mike Berger Award for the year’s best writing about New York City. In 1971 he received the Mike Berger Award again, becoming the first person to win it twice.
He then moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to write books and articles. Mayer is the author of fourteen books -- twelve novels and two works of non-fiction. Eight of the books have been reissued in new editions during the past few years. They include "Superfolks," which (for better or worse) altered the treatment of superheroes in comics and movies forever; "Notes of a Baseball Dreamer," a memoir about growing up as a wannabe major leaguer in the city; and "The Dreams of Ada," the true story of two men spending life in prison for a murder they did not commit.
Between writing books Mayer served six years as managing editor and then editor of The Santa Fe Reporter, an alternative weekly. His journalism has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, Newsweek, GQ, Condé Nast Traveler, Travel & Leisure, Metropolitan Home, Southwest Art, Rocky Mountain Magazine, New Mexico Magazine, the Santa Fean and numerous other publications.
He has worked with the same literary agent, Philip Spitzer, for 39 years. Philip is the agent for Michael Connolly, James Lee Burke, Andre Dubus III and many others.
Mayer lives in New Mexico with his wife, La Donna, who is a weaver of tapestries. La Donna can be reached at 505-231-5904. Her tapestries can be seen at LaDonnaMayerTapestry.com.
Their daughter, Amara Cocilovo Nash, is the supervisor of The Maritime Museum in Cortez, FL.
Born in the Bronx, N.Y., Mayer attended the City College of NY, and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where he was awarded a Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship. After a brief stint at the Washington Post, he joined the staff of Newsday. He spent ten years there, six as a reporter and four as the paper’s New York City columnist.
In 1968 he won the National Headliner Award as the best feature columnist in the country. In 1969 he won the Mike Berger Award for the year’s best writing about New York City. In 1971 he received the Mike Berger Award again, becoming the first person to win it twice.
He then moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, to write books and articles. Mayer is the author of fourteen books -- twelve novels and two works of non-fiction. Eight of the books have been reissued in new editions during the past few years. They include "Superfolks," which (for better or worse) altered the treatment of superheroes in comics and movies forever; "Notes of a Baseball Dreamer," a memoir about growing up as a wannabe major leaguer in the city; and "The Dreams of Ada," the true story of two men spending life in prison for a murder they did not commit.
Between writing books Mayer served six years as managing editor and then editor of The Santa Fe Reporter, an alternative weekly. His journalism has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, Newsweek, GQ, Condé Nast Traveler, Travel & Leisure, Metropolitan Home, Southwest Art, Rocky Mountain Magazine, New Mexico Magazine, the Santa Fean and numerous other publications.
He has worked with the same literary agent, Philip Spitzer, for 39 years. Philip is the agent for Michael Connolly, James Lee Burke, Andre Dubus III and many others.
Mayer lives in New Mexico with his wife, La Donna, who is a weaver of tapestries. La Donna can be reached at 505-231-5904. Her tapestries can be seen at LaDonnaMayerTapestry.com.
Their daughter, Amara Cocilovo Nash, is the supervisor of The Maritime Museum in Cortez, FL.