Indian author Banu Mushtaq has won the International Booker Prize 2025 for her short story collection 'Heart Lamp'. The prestigious award was announced on Tuesday, May 20, 2025, at a ceremony held at London's Tate Modern Museum.
Mushtaq shares the £50,000 prize with her translator, Deepa Bhasthi, marking the first time a Kannada-language author and an Indian translator have won the prize, respectively. Max Porter, chair of the judging panel, praised 'Heart Lamp' as 'something genuinely new for English readers,' highlighting its exploration of women's lives, reproductive rights, faith, caste, power, and oppression.
'Heart Lamp' is a collection of 12 short stories that chronicle the everyday lives of women and girls in patriarchal communities in southern India. Originally written in Kannada between 1990 and 2023, the stories reflect Mushtaq's advocacy for women's rights and her opposition to caste and religious oppression.
Impact and Recognition
The International Booker Prize recognizes the vital role of translation in literature. Mushtaq's win highlights the growing global recognition of regional Indian literature in English translation. The judges described 'Heart Lamp' as 'witty, vivid, colloquial, moving and excoriating'.
Mushtaq expressed that the prize demonstrates the potential of Kannada literature and the importance of translating more works into other languages. Bhasthi hopes the win encourages more translations from and into Kannada and other South Asian languages.