Priya Basil

Priya Basil (born 1977 in London, England) is a British and German author and political activist. Her work has been translated into over half a dozen languages, and her first novel was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. She is co-founder and board member of WIR MACHEN DAS, an organisation working with refugees and migrants. Basil is a member of the advisory board of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights. She has conceptualised and curated projects for various institutions including the Goethe-Institut [12][13], the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin [14] and the International Literature Festival Berlin [15]. Priya was curator of Europe's Kitchen [16], a multidisciplinary, Europe-wide series of events that she conceptualized with the Goethe-Institute to mark Germany's EU Council Presidency from July to December 2020. Since 2021, Priya Basil is curator of the ongoing event series Objects Talk Back at the Humboldt Forum, Berlin. And she is also editor of a related book series [17].

From 2021 to 2023 Basil was International Writer in Residence for Mindscapes, a project of the Wellcome Trust UK, devoted to transforming how we understand, talk about and treat mental health. As part of this Priya undertook a research journey which spanned six continents to learn about different understandings of well-being and practices of healing. In 2024, Basil was writer in residence with Canopy, a project by Wellcome intended to put health at the centre of climate action.