Deborah Baker is a biographer and essayist. She is author of In Extremis: The Life of Laura Riding, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and of A Blue Hand: The Beats in India, a recent biographical study of Allen Ginsberg.  The latter focuses on his time in India, based on extensive research, undiscovered letters, journals, and memoirs.  Baker also writes for the Los Angeles Times. Her new book, The Convert, about a Jewish woman from the Bronx who converted is Islam, is due to be released in June 2011. She is married to novelist Amitav Ghosh.