Philipp Meyer grew up in a working class neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland, dropping out of high school at age sixteen. After several years working as a bicycle mechanic and a volunteer in a city trauma center, he decided to go to college, eventually graduating from Cornell University.

Immediately after university, he spent a few years as a derivatives trader for a Swiss investment bank, followed by longer stints working construction and driving an ambulance. He has published two novels: American Rust and The Son. He was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and won the Lucien Barriere and Prix Literature-Monde prizes in France. He is a Knight in France’s Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He lives in Texas.