Geoff Dyer (born 1958) is an English author. He has written a number of novels and non-fiction books, some of which have won literary awards. Dyer was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2005.Royal Society of Literature: Current RSL Fellows (Accessdate 03-06-13)
Early life and education 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. After graduating from Oxford, he claimed unemployment benefits, and moved into a property in Brixton with other former Oxford students. He credits this period with teaching him the craft of writing.
Writing career Dyer's debut novel, The Colour of Memory, is set in Brixton in the 1980s, the decade that he lived there. The novel has been described as a "fictionalization of Dyer's 20s".
Dyer is the author of the following novels: The Colour of Memory (1989), The Search (1993), Paris Trance (1998) and Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi (2009). 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 has written the following non-fiction titles: But Beautiful (on jazz); The Missing of the Somme (on the memorialisation of the First World War); Out of Sheer Rage: Wrestling with 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.
Dyer's 2014 book Another Great Day at Sea chronicles his experiences on the , where he was writer-in-residence for two weeks.
In September 2026, Canongate Books acquired L’Avventura, Dyer's first novel in 17 years, from the Wylie Agency for publication in May 2027.
Academic career In 2013, he was 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.
Personal life
Dyer is married to Rebecca Wilson, chief curator at Saatchi Art, Los Angeles. He lives in Venice, California. In March 2014, Dyer said he had had a minor stroke earlier in the year, shortly after moving to live in Venice.
Awards and honours 1992: Somerset Maugham Award winner for But Beautiful 1998: National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism finalist for Out of Sheer Rage 2003: Lannan Literary Fellowship 2004: WH 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: 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 2014: Honorary Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. 2015: Windham–Campbell Literature Prize (Non-Fiction) valued at $150,000
Publications
Books
U.S. edition:
On Tarkovsky's movie Stalker
Critical studies and reviews of Dyer's work
References
External links
Geoff Dyer at the complete review Geoff Dyer, The Art of Nonfiction No. 6 by Matthew Specktor in The Paris Review Interview with Dyer on Notebook on Cities and Culture