Suswati Basu

Suswati Basu is a multilingual disabled editor and journalist

Suswati Basu is a multilingual disabled editor, journalist, former intelligence expert, mental health show host of the How To Be Books Podcast, and award-winning activist.

Suswati has written for the Guardian, Huffington Post, and the F-Word blogs, and has worked for various media outlets such as the BBC, Channel 4 News, and ITV News.

Winner of the Emma Humphries Memorial Prize in 2007, also shortlisted for the Guardian Mary Stott Prize in the same year, and longlisted for the Guardian International Development Journalism Award. She has worked in China, India, and the UK and currently writes on a freelance basis. As a result, she speaks multiple languages including Mandarin, Spanish, Hindi, and Bengali. Suswati has also appeared on BBC Radio's Woman's Hour with Jenni Murray as well as BBC News, speaking in regard to feminist issues.

As a survivor and thriver from trauma, living with both mental health and physical disabilities, she began the How To Be... podcast looking at helping mental wellbeing through reading and interviewing authors. Speaking to 36 authors in 2021, including powerhouse women such as powerlifter and journalist Poorna Bell, and the Year of Living Danishly author Helen Russell, Suswati gained huge insight throughout the year and has been developing and creating a like-minded community who discuss these topics on Twitter Spaces and Clubhouse on a weekly basis. She actually reads a book a day! She is currently Head of Audience and Deputy Editor at NationalWorld.

Specialties: Specialties in women in technology, DEI, gender, social model of disability, race, and social politics; British, Chinese and Indian politics, mental health, eating disorders, nonfiction books.

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