Nicholson Baker is an American novelist and essayist renowned for his fiction that frequently eschews traditional narrative structures in favor of meticulous description and rich characterization. His distinctive storytelling style is evident in his early works such as The Mezzanine and Room Temperature, which are noted for their deep dive into the stream of consciousness of his characters and narrators.

Among his diverse portfolio of ten novels, three delve into the realm of erotica, namely Vox, The Fermata, and House of Holes. In addition to his fiction, Baker has made significant contributions to non-fiction, with titles like U and I: A True Story, where he explores his relationship with John Updike. His critical examination of the American library system is showcased in Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper, for which he was awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Calw Hermann Hesse Prize for its German translation. Baker's pacifist views come to light in his work Human Smoke, which discusses the events leading up to World War II.

Baker is also a prolific contributor to various esteemed periodicals, including Harper's Magazine, the London Review of Books, and The New Yorker. His founding of the American Newspaper Repository in 1999 highlights his dedication to the preservation of historical documents. Additionally, Baker's engagement with and editing of Wikipedia reflects his involvement in the dissemination of knowledge.