Meral Kureyshi was born in 1983 in Prizren in what was then Yugoslavia. Her parents, of Turkish origin, brought her and her two younger siblings to Switzerland in 1992, when she was ten years old. She has lived there since.
She completed her studies at the Schweizerische Literaturinstitut (Swiss Literary Institute) in Biel and founded the Lyrikatelier (Lyric Studio) in Bern (http://www.westwind6.ch/lyrikatelier/).
Elefanten im Garten is her debut novel.
In 2015 she was nominated for the Swiss Book Prize; in 2016 for the Canton of Bern Prize for Literature; and in 2016 for the Frauenfeld liest ein Buch prize.