Philipp Meyer is the author of the novels The Son (2013), and American Rust (2009), winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and a New York Times Notable Book of 2009. In 2010, The New Yorker named him one of the 20 best writers under 40. He grew up in Baltimore, dropped out of high school, and got his GED when he was sixteen. After spending several years volunteering at a trauma center in downtown Baltimore, he attended Cornell University, where he studied English. He has worked as a derivatives trader at UBS, a construction worker, and an EMT, among other jobs. Meyer’s writing has appeared in McSweeney’s, The Iowa Review, Salon.com, and elsewhere. He lives in Austin and New York.