Bio
Eugene L. Meyer grew up in a house of 25,000 used books in the Long Island suburbs. Since January 2004, after more than three decades at the Washington Post as a reporter and editor, Meyer has been a fulltime freelancer, receiving 15 awards for his journalism and writing. He has had more than 50 bylines in The New York Times, largely about economic development issues, and written for numerous other publications, including Bethesda Magazine, where he is a contributing editor, U.S. News & World Report, Washingtonian, Columbia College Today and Maryland Life, where he garnered multiple awards for his features and his “Hidden Maryland” column. Since December 2009, Meyer has been the editor of the quarterly B’nai B’rith Magazine, which has won several awards under his stewardship. He has written about the rise of citizen journalism and about media codes of ethics for the Center for International Media Assistance, a Washington, D.C. think tank, and about the “gig” economy for CQ Researcher. He is also on the board of the nonprofit online Washington Independent Review of Books, to which he contributes reviews and essays.
Much of Meyer’s writing is closely tied to his love of history. He also seeks to provide readers with a sense of place about where they live, work or travel. He likes back roads and forgotten places but also finds satisfaction in writing about dynamic changes in cities in suburbs. Over his long career, he has interviewed country music phenomenon Charlie Pride, former Weather Underground member Bernardine Dohrn and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, covered antiwar protests from inside and out, spent Jimmy Carter’s last presidential Christmas in Plains, Ga., covered two state legislatures and the release of the Iranian hostages in 1981, gone crabbing and oystering with Maryland watermen, and written newspaper series on subjects ranging from urban renewal and farm preservation to the Chesapeake Bay to a suburban police “death squad.”
Oh, and he also interviewed the Beatles in their dressing room — the calm eye in the middle of a hurricane — prior to their Philadelphia rock concert on Aug. 17, 1966. He has the clips to prove it! Click here to see other articles by Gene Meyer.
Read a “Contributors” blurb about Gene from the July-August 2018 issue of Bethesda Magazine.
See awards for Gene’s work
Click here to engage Gene to speak at your event.
