Philipp Meyer’s first novel, American Rust, won a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, was an Economist Book of the Year, a New York Times Notable Book, and a Washington Post Book of the Year. Meyer was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Dobie Paisano Fellowship, and named as one of the New Yorker magazine’s twenty best writers under forty.
His second novel, The Son, was runner up for the Pulitzer Prize. It was a bestseller in a dozen countries and published in thirty languages. In France, The Son won the Prix Littérature-Monde as well as the Lucien Barrière Prize. Meyer is a Chevalier (Knight) in France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Both The Son and American Rust were adapted into television shows. The Son starred Pierce Brosnan. American Rust starred Jeff Daniels.
His third novel, The City, is a dystopian epic inspired by the Divine Comedy. It will be published in at least a dozen countries in mid or late 2027.
His fourth novel, The Life of Marcus Aurelius (based on the life of Stoic philosopher and Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius), will be published in 2028.
Meyer grew up in the Hampden neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. He dropped out of high school at 16 and worked at various jobs—including as a bike mechanic and an orderly in a trauma center—before being admitted to Cornell University at age 23. He graduated with a degree in English and headed to Wall Street as a derivatives trader. He eventually left Wall Street with hopes of becoming a novelist, moving back into his parent’s basement in Baltimore, taking jobs as an EMT and construction worker while also serving as volunteer firefighter. In 2005, Meyer was one of the first EMTs to respond to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, arriving in the city during the middle of the storm itself. He went on to attend graduate school at the University of Texas, where he wrote his first novel, American Rust.
After stints in Texas, New York, and Montana, he currently resides in Baltimore, Maryland.