{{Short description|American biographer and essayist}} {{for|the American actress|Deborah Baker Jr.}} {{Infobox writer | embed = | honorific_prefix = | name = Deborah Baker | honorific_suffix = | image = Deborah Baker 130477.jpg | image_size = | image_upright = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | pseudonym = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1959|03|28}} | birth_place = Charlottesville, Virginia | death_date = <!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} --> | death_place = | resting_place = | occupation = | language = | residence = | nationality = | citizenship = | education = | alma_mater = University of Virginia, <br> Cambridge University | period = | genre = <!-- or: | genres = --> | subject = <!-- or: | subjects = --> | movement = | notableworks = <!-- or: | notablework = --> | spouse = Amitav Ghosh | partner = <!-- or: | partners = --> | children = | relatives = | awards = Guggenheim Fellowship, <br> Whiting Award | signature = | signature_alt = | years_active = | module = | website = <!-- {{URL|example.org}} --> | portaldisp = <!-- "on", "yes", "true", etc; or omit --> }} '''Deborah Baker''' is an American biographer and essayist. She was born on March 28, 1959, in Charlottesville, Virginia.
She is the author of ''A Blue Hand: The Beats in India'', a biography of Allen Ginsberg that focuses on his time in India<ref>{{cite news|author=Celia McGee |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/13/books/review/McGee-t.html |title=Om Sweet Om |location=India |work=The New York Times |date=2008-04-13 |access-date=2012-11-16}}</ref> and of ''In Extremis: The Life of Laura Riding'', a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in biography in 1994.<ref>{{cite web|author=Richard Ellmann |url=http://www.pulitzer.org/bycat/Biography+or+Autobiography |title=The Pulitzer Prizes; Biography or Autobiography |publisher=Pulitzer.org |date= |access-date=2012-11-16}}</ref> She also writes for the ''Los Angeles Times''.{{failed verification|date=November 2012}}<ref>{{cite news| url=http://articles.latimes.com/writers/deborah-baker | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090714000322/http://articles.latimes.com/writers/deborah-baker | url-status=dead | archive-date=July 14, 2009 | work=Los Angeles Times | title=Featured Articles From the Los Angeles Times}}</ref> Her book ''The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism'' (2011) is a biography of Maryam Jameelah (born Margaret Marcus), a Jewish woman from New York who converted to Islam.<ref>{{cite news|last=Adams |first=Lorraine |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/books/review/book-review-the-convert-by-deborah-baker.html |title=Book Review - The Convert - By Deborah Baker |work=The New York Times |date=2011-05-20 |access-date=2012-11-16}}</ref> In 2012, she wrote a critical review for ''The Wall Street Journal'' of ''Defender of the Realm'', the Manchester-Reid biography of Winston Churchill.<ref>[https://www.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970204530504578077051308225418 wsj.com: "The Last Stand of Winston Churchill" (Baker) 9 Nov 2012]</ref>
==Family== She is married to the Indian Bengali writer Amitav Ghosh and lives in Brooklyn, Calcutta, and Goa.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sajaforum.org/2008/03/books-deborah-b.html |title=BOOKS: Deborah Baker's "A Blue Hand: The Beats in India" |publisher=SAJAforum |date=2008-03-21 |access-date=2012-11-16}}</ref>
==Awards== Baker was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2014.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gf.org/fellows/results?query=&lower_bound=2014&upper_bound=2014&competition=ALL&fellowship_category=ALL&x=24&y=12 |title=Search Results - John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation |access-date=2015-01-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402105927/http://www.gf.org/fellows/results?query=&lower_bound=2014&upper_bound=2014&competition=ALL&fellowship_category=ALL&x=24&y=12 |archive-date=2015-04-02 }}</ref>
In 2016, she was awarded a Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant to complete her book, ''The Last Englishmen: Love, War and the End of Empire.''<ref>{{cite web|title=2016 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grantee: Deborah Baker|url=https://www.whiting.org/awards/content/deborah-baker |website=Whiting.org|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180125020100/https://www.whiting.org/awards/content/deborah-baker |access-date=24 January 2018|archive-date=2018-01-25 }}</ref>
==Works== *''Making a Farm: The Life of Robert Bly;'' Charlottesville, Va., 1981. {{OCLC|909398434}} *''In Extremis: The Life of Laura Riding;'' New York : Grove Weidenfeld, 1992. {{ISBN|9780802113641}}, {{OCLC|213341906}} *''A Blue Hand: The Beats in India;'' New York : Penguin Press, 2008. {{ISBN|9781594201585}}, {{OCLC|239110990}} *''The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism.'' Saint Paul, Minn. : Graywolf, 2013. {{ISBN|9781555976279}}, {{OCLC|822959870}} *''The Last Englishmen'', Graywolf Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota : Graywolf Press, 2018. {{ISBN|9781555978044}}, {{OCLC|1002562236}} *''Charlottesville: An American Story'', Graywolf Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota : Graywolf Press, 2025. {{ISBN|9781644453414}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[https://deborahbaker.net/ Official website] {{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, Deborah}} Category:21st-century American women writers Category:20th-century American biographers Category:American essayists Category:American women biographers Category:American women essayists Category:Writers from Charlottesville, Virginia Category:Loomis Chaffee School alumni Category:Living people Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:21st-century American biographers
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