Who Dat?

Either the National Book Award nominating committee is going out on a limb, or my knowledge of contemporary fiction over the past year is worse than I thought. I do not recognize one single name or book on the fiction list. Here are the finalists for that category: Mark Z. Danielewski, "Only Revolutions"; Ken Kalfus, "A Disorder Peculiar to the Country"; Richard Powers, "The Echo Maker"; Dana Spiotta, "Eat the Document"; Jess Walter, "The Zero." (Richard Powers' name sounds familiar, but I couldn't tell you what else he's written.)