ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Elizabeth Kolbert has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1999. She has written dozens of pieces for the magazine, including profiles of Senator Hillary Clinton, Mayor Michael Blooomberg, and former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Her series on global warming, "The Climate of Man," which appeared in The New Yorker in the spring of 2005, was awarded the American Association for the Advancement of Science's magazine writing award. Her stories have also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Vogue, and Mother Jones, and have been anthologized in "The Best American Science and Nature Writing" and "The Best American Political Writing." A collection of her work, "The Prophet of Love and Other Tales of Power and Deceit," was published in 2004.

Prior to joining the staff of The New Yorker, Ms. Kolbert was a political reporter for The New York Times. Ms. Kolbert lives in Williamstown, Massachusetts with her husband and three sons.