Nicholson Baker, Lydia Davis, Geoff Dyer, Deborah Eisenberg, Brian Evenson, Ian Frazier, Allan Gurganus, Edward P.

NEWYORKER: Wells Tower

On the Geoff Dyer-scale, he is a fairly old-fashioned essayist.

NEWYORKER: Reality Effects

Also nominated was Geoff Dyer's take on Julian Barnes' Booker-winning novel, The Sense of An Ending, of which he said: "It isn't terrible, it is just so... average, " and David Sexton's review of Carol Ann Duffy's The Bees - calling it "very GCSE".

BBC: By Nightfall jacket