Surbhi Gupta is the South Asia Editor at New Lines magazine and a 2022 Li Global Fellow with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. She was previously a staff writer at The Indian Express, where she reported on culture, politics, and the internet.

Born and raised in New Delhi, and now based in New York City, Surbhi has covered the many textures of South Asian life — from the rise of street hip hop and resistance art in Kashmir to the revival of Dastangoi, an Urdu storytelling tradition. For The Indian Express’s Sunday magazine, she chronicled the stories of Old Delhi’s family-run eateries, uncovering histories of migration, Partition, and recipes passed down through generations.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, she shifted focus to new beats, documenting how lockdowns reshaped daily life in India — from e-commerce and healthcare to the struggles of stranded migrants.

Surbhi holds degrees in mass communication from the University of Delhi, journalism from the Asian College of Journalism, and a master’s from Columbia Journalism School. At Columbia, she reported on the South Asian diaspora in the U.S., explored the culture of body shaming in South Asia, and studied everything from John Coltrane’s jazz to modern Middle Eastern art. She also served as Vice President of the campus South Asian Journalists Association, organizing talks and panels with leading voices in the field.