Diane Mehta was born in Frankfurt, grew up in Bombay and New Jersey, studied in Boston, and now makes her home in New York City.

Books include a collection of poems, Tiny Extravaganzas (Arrowsmith Press, Nov 2023) and an essay collection (University of Georgia Press, 2025). She is also the author of the debut poetry book Forest with Castanets (2019) and How to Write Poetry (2005). She is at work on a novel set in 1946-7 India.

Her work has been recognized by the Peter Heinegg Literary Award, the Café Royal Cultural Foundation, a Kirby-Mewshaw fellowship at Civitella Ranieri, and a fellowship at Yaddo.

She was the founding managing editor of A Public Space, launched and edited Glossolalia for PEN America to publish writing from traditionally underrepresented languages, and was executive nonfiction editor for Guernica.

She publishes poetry, essays, and criticism for The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Harvard Review, The Kenyon Review, the Guardian, Virginia Quarterly Review, American Poetry Review, and A Public Space.