The Writer Behind
the Story

Biography

Bryan Mealer

Bryan Mealer is a journalist and author whose work spans the brutal front lines of war, the forgotten corners of American poverty, and the rich, red-clay heartland of West Texas.

Born on January 23, 1975, in Odessa, Texas, Mealer grew up in the dust and heat of West Texas before making his way to San Antonio and eventually to the University of Texas at Austin, where he earned his degree in journalism.

After graduating, he forged a career as a war correspondent and foreign reporter, most notably spending years in the Democratic Republic of Congo for the Associated Press — one of the most dangerous and underreported conflict zones in the world. Those years produced his debut book, All Things Must Fight to Live (2008), a searing account of war and unexpected hope in Central Africa.

In 2009, Mealer co-authored The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind with William Kamkwamba, a Malawian inventor who built a wind turbine from scratch as a teenager to power his family's home. The book became an international bestseller and was later adapted into a major Netflix film in 2019 — written and directed by Chiwetel Ejiofor.

His 2012 book Muck City turned his lens homeward, embedding with the Glades Central High School Raiders in Belle Glade, Florida — a town throttled by poverty but famous for producing NFL talent. Critics praised it as a stirring portrait of community, aspiration, and the limits of sport as salvation.

Most recently, The Kings of Big Spring (2018) is Mealer's most personal work: a multigenerational family saga set against the oil booms and busts of West Texas, tracing the search for faith, fortune, and belonging across more than a century of American history.

Mealer's journalism has appeared in The Guardian, Texas Monthly, and across the wire services. He writes with the discipline of a reporter and the heart of a novelist — always in pursuit of the story only the people living it can tell.