“I think it’s usually a good time to write a book when you go to the library or the bookstore and the book you want to read isn’t there,” explained Michael Meyer in that video interview. He’s the author of the book, “The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed,”and shared some simple, powerful advice for aspiring creative nonfiction writers.

Meyer was one of the ten writers honored at the 25th annual Whiting Writers’ Awards last week. GalleyCat prowled the aisles of the 2009 Whiting Awards, interviewing a number of the winners about their writing lives, the recession, and the future of literature. The ten recipients each took home a $50,000 award for their literary efforts.

Here’s more about the author: “The Minnesota native has lived for the past two of his 10 years in China in one of the courtyard neighborhoods – called hutong – first settled 800 years ago, whose narrow lanes run mazelike through the center of Old Beijing.”

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Last night, ten authors received a $50,000 check from the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation, part of the 25th annual Whiting Writers’ Awards. Since 1985, the philanthropic foundation has given emerging creative writers these grants. Previous winners have included: “Denis Johnson, Michael Cunningham, Alice McDermott, and Colson Whitehead. The complete list of winners follows after the jump.

GalleyCat was there, shooting video interviews with the winners and finding out more about Atwood’s recent foray into the world of Twitter. “It’s been quite a lot of fun. I can send out desperate tweets and 15 people will answer my question,” she explained after the ceremony. Twitter hadn’t corrupted her writing style, she concluded: “It’s a descendant of the telegram. Telegrams required succinctness because they charged by the word. It’s a message.”

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