Gabriela Babnik was born in 1979 in Göppingen, Germany. She completed her studies in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana in 2005, where she also obtained her Master’s degree on the modern Nigerian novel in 2010. Since 2002, she has been regularly publishing literary criticism, interviews, commentary, reports and essays in literary-cultural magazines and supplements such as Literatura, Mentor, Ekran, Poetikon, Književni listi, Pogledi and others. Her first novel Koža iz bombaža (Cotton Skin, 2007) received the award for the Best Debut Novel at the Slovenian National Book Fair in 2007. Her second novel V visoki travi (In the Tall Grass, 2009) was shortlisted for the “Kresnik Award” for the best novel of the year in 2010. Her third novel, Sušna doba (Dry Season, 2012), was awarded the European Union Prize for Literature in 2013, and was translated into 13 languages. English translation of Dry season was nominated for International Dublin Literary award, and in 2016 listed amongst six best EU translated novels. Her novel Intimately (Intimno, Beletrina, 2015) was shortlisted for the Kresnik Award. In spring 2019 her new novel Three deaths is comming out. As a literary critic, she was honoured with the “Josip Stritar” Young Critics Award in 2013. She is also writing radio plays and short stories.
Since 2015 has been a vice-president of the Slovenian Writers' Association. She and her family divide their time between Slovenia and Africa.