A woman with dark hair and glasses taking a selfie in a room with kitchen shelves in the background. She is wearing a white top and is leaning on a surface.

Upasna Barath is a queer Indian American writer and performer based in Brooklyn, NY.


Her debut novella, Comedic Timing — a McNally Jackson bestseller featured in The Strategist, Who What Wear, Vogue and The Today Show — is out now with 831 Stories.

Upasna is a 20/21 Steppenwolf Theatre Literary Apprentice and Fellow, a 2026 Cherry Lane PLaywrights Collective Semi-Finalist, a 2023 Youngblood/EST Finalist and a member of the 23/24 Art House INKubator New Play Program cohort.

Upasna’s self-help podcast Don’t Butcher It is a 2021 Spotify Next Wave winner. Her writing has been published in Vogue, Waif Magazine and Rookie Mag.

In her free time she enjoys practicing reading + speaking in Italian, drawing, and dancing to techno with unbelievable BPMs.

You can subscribe to her Substack and read her plays.