Anjana Basu was born in Allahabad and started school in London. She works as an advertising consultant in Calcutta. Her poems have featured in ananthology brought out by Penguin India, Writer's Workshop and recently by Authorpress. The BBC has broadcast her short stories and Orient Longman brought out a collection called The Agency Raga. In America she has been published in Gowanus, The Blue Moon Review,  and Recursive Angel, to name a few. In Canada she has appeared in The Antigonish Review. The Edinburgh Review and The Saltzburg Review have also featured her work, In 2003, Harper Collins India brought out her novel Curses In Ivory.

In 2004, she was awarded a Hawthornden Fellowship in Scotland where she
worked on her second novel, Black Tongue published by Roli in 2007.
In February 2010. her children's novel Chinku and the Wolfboy was brought
out by Roli. Her novel Rhythms of Darkness published by Gyaana Books came out in October 2011. In the Shadow of the Leaves was brought out by TERI in 2014 and was launched at Oxford on July 25th, Jim Corbett's birthday.

She has worked on scripts with director Rituparno Ghosh for Antarmahal and The Last Lear and has subtitled several of his films including Unishe
April, Dahan and Chokher Bali. She has also  subtitled the Rahul Bose
starrer, Antaheen and Egaro.

Her byline has appeared in Vogue India, Conde Nast Traveller India, and
India Today Travel Plus. She once wrote a food column for Times of India
and a regular column for The Statesman. She reviews books for publications
like Wasafiri and Outlook.