Returned Peace Corps
Volunteers Ravij Joseph (Senegal 97-00) and Michael Meyer (China 95-97) were among the ten writers receiving
the 2009 Whiting Writers’ Award at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York
City yesterday evening. This prestigious $50,000 award recognizes young writers for their
extraordinary talent and promise and is one of most coveted prizes for up and
coming writers. These awards have been given annually since 1985 and past recipients
include Michael Cunningham, Kim Edwards, Tobias Wolff, Jeffrey Eugenides, and
Mary Karr – all winners before they were acclaimed, bestselling authors.
A native of Minnesota, Michael
Meyer joined the Peace Corps with a degree in education from
the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Following graduate school at the
University of California-Berkeley he settled on a hutong in 2005, Bejing’s
oldest neighborhood in shared courtyard home. At the time, the Chinese
government was razing such ancient neighborhoods in its bid to become a modern
city for the 2008 Summer Olympics. Meyer volunteered as an English teacher at
the local elementary school and recorded the hutong’s vibrant life in his first
book, The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing
Backstreets of a City Transformed, published by Walker & Company
in 2008. NPCA’s WorldView magazine
carried an excerpt in its Fall 2008 issue. Meyer is currently working on a second book, In
Manchuria, which details daily life on a rice farm in Northeast
China. Meyer currently resides in New
York City, and is moving back to China this fall.
Congratulations Rajiv and Michael!
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