Priya Dames (she/her) is a Caribbean-Indian writer and journalist. Her work has been featured in The News & Observer, Triad City Beat, and Rowdy Magazine. In addition to her essays and criticism, Priya writes short stories about nature, mystery, and personhood, which can be found on her Substack newsletter, The Cocoon. She is the founder of the BIPOC Writing Group, a biweekly workshop at Scuppernong Books that hopes to provide belonging, camaraderie, and soft accountability to writers of color in North Carolina. Priya is working on her first novel manuscript.