Geoff Dyer

Geoff Dyer (born 5 June 1958) is an English writer. He has authored a number of novels and books of non-fiction, which have won literary awards and been translated into 24 languages. Kathryn Schulz, writing in New York, described him as "one of our greatest living critics, not of the arts but of life itself, and one of our most original writers".

Dyer was born and raised in Cheltenham, England, as the only child of a sheet metal worker father and a school dinner lady mother. He was educated at the local grammar school and won a scholarship to study English at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He is married to Rebecca Wilson, chief curator at Saatchi Art, Los Angeles. In March 2014, Dyer said he had had a minor stroke earlier in the year, shortly after moving to live in Venice, Los Angeles.

Dyer is the author of four novels: The Colour of Memory; The Search; Paris Trance; and, most recently, Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi. He wrote a critical study of John Berger – Ways of Telling – and two collections of essays: Anglo-English Attitudes and Working the Room.A selection of essays from these collections entitled Otherwise Known as the Human Condition was published in the U.S. in April 2011 and won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism.

Dyer wrote seven genre-defying titles: But Beautiful (on jazz); The Missing of the Somme (on the memorialization of the First World War); Out of Sheer Rage (about D. H. Lawrence); Yoga For People Who Can’t Be Bothered To Do It; The Ongoing Moment (on photography); Zona (about Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 film Stalker); and Broadsword Calling Danny Boy (about Brian G. Hutton's 1968 film Where Eagles Dare). In 2019, Out of Sheer Rage was listed by Slate as one of the 50 greatest nonfiction works of the past 25 years. He is the editor of John Berger: Selected Essays and co-editor, with Margaret Sartor, of What Was True: The Photographs and Notebooks of William Gedney.

One of his most recent books, Another Great Day at Sea (2014), chronicles Dyer’s experiences on the USS George H.W. Bush, where he was writer-in-residence for two weeks. It has been described by David Finkel, author of Thank You for Your Service, as "what we’ve all come to expect from Geoff Dyer—another great book. I loved everything about it. It’s brilliantly observed, beautifully written, incisive, funny, and filled with stirring truths about life and the value of service." Billy Collins, the former United States Poet Laureate and author of Aimless Love, said: "Geoff Dyer has managed to do again what he does best: insert himself into an exotic and demanding environment (sometimes, his own flat, but here, the violent wonders of an aircraft carrier) and file a report that mixes empathetic appreciation with dips into brilliant comic deflation. Welcome aboard the edifying and sometimes hilarious ship Dyer."

Dyer was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2005. In 2014 he was elected as an Honorary Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

In 2013 he served as the Bedell Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Iowa's Nonfiction Writing Program. He now teaches in the PhD program at the University of Southern California.

• 1992: Somerset Maugham Award winner for But Beautiful
• 1992: John Llewellyn Rhys Prize shortlisted for But Beautiful
• 1998: National Book Critics Circle Award finalist in Criticism for Out of Sheer Rage
• 2003: Lannan Literary Fellowship
• 2004: W H Smith Best Travel Book Award winner for Yoga For People Who Can’t Be Bothered To Do It
• 2005: Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
• 2006: Winner of the E. M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters
• 2006: International Center of Photography (ICP) Infinity Award for Writing on photography for The Ongoing Moment
• 2009: GQ Writer of the Year Award
• 2009: Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Best Comic Novel for Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi
• 2011: National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism winner for Otherwise Known as the Human Condition
• 2015: Windham–Campbell Literature Prize (Non-Fiction) valued at $150,000

Books

• Dyer, Geoff (1986). Ways of telling : the work of John Berger. London: Pluto Press.
• — (1989). The colour of memory. London: Jonathan Cape.
• — (1991). But beautiful : a book about jazz. London: Jonathan Cape.
• — (1993). The search. London: Hamish Hamilton.
• — (1994). The missing of the Somme. London: Hamish Hamilton.
• — (1997). Out of sheer rage : in the shadow of D.H. Lawrence. London: Little, Brown.
  • U.S. edition: Out of sheer rage : wrestling with D.H. Lawrence. U.S. edition. New York: North Point Press. 1998.
• — (1998). Paris trance. London: Abacus.
• — (1999). Anglo-English attitudes : essays, reviews, misadventures 1984-99. London: Abacus.
• Sartor, Margaret; Dyer, Geoff, eds. (2000). What was true : the photographs and notebooks of William Gedney. New York: Center for Documentary Studies.
• Berger, John (2001).Dyer, Geoff (ed.). Selected essays. London: Bloomsbury.
• Dyer, Geoff (2003). Yoga for people who can't be bothered to do it. London: Time Warner.
• — (2005). The ongoing moment. London: Little, Brown.
• — (2009). Jeff in Venice, death in Varanasi. Edinburgh: Canongate.
• — (2010). Working the room : essays and reviews, 1999-2010. Edinburgh: Canongate.
• — (2011). Otherwise known as the human condition : selected essays and reviews, 1989-2010. Minneapolis, MN: Graywolf Press.
• — (2012). The colour of memory. Rev. and updated ed. Edinburgh: Canongate.
• — (2012). Zona: A Book About a Film About a Journey to a Room. Edinburgh: Canongate.
  • — (2012). Zona: a book about a film about a journey to a room. U.S. edition. New York: Pantheon.
• — (2014). Another great day at sea : life aboard the USS George H.W. Bush. Photographs by Chris Steele-Perkins. New York: Pantheon.
• — (2016). White Sands: Experiences from the Outside World. New York: Pantheon.
• — (2018). Broadsword Calling Danny Boy. London: Penguin.
• — (2018). The Street Philosophy of Garry Winogrand. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-1477310335.

Critical studies and reviews of Dyer's work

• Wood, James (20 April 2009). "From Venice to Varanasi - Geoff Dyer's Wandering Eye". The New Yorker. 90 (9).