Banu Mushtaq’s short story collection “Heart Lamp” paved the way for her history-making milestone on Tuesday, as she became the first Kannada writer to snag the International Booker prize. The 77-year-old writer-lawyer-activist equally shared the annual prize and 50,000 pounds cash prize with her translator Deepa Bhasthi. In a double record-breaking streak, “Heart Lamp” also brought on the first Booker Prize win for a short story collection.
The Indian author’s collection features 12 short stories penned over three decades from 1990 to 2023, all illustrating the daily lives of Muslim women in Karnataka. “This moment feels like a thousand fireflies lighting a single sky — brief, brilliant and utterly collective,” Banu Mushtaq said while collecting the prize at a ceremony at the Tate Modern in London. “I accept this great honour not as an individual but as a voice raised in chorus with so many other.”
Honouring the glorious moment for magnum opus written in Kannada, she added, “What a beautiful win this is for my beautiful language.” While “Heart Lamp” is the first Kannada piece of writing to win the international Booker Prize, it is the second Indian book to land this honour in three years after Geetanjali Shree and translator Daisy Rockwell‘s “Tomb of Sand” scored the 2022 award.
The other five books shortlisted for this year’s prize alongside Mushtaq’s short story collection were: Solvej Balle’s “On the Calculation of Volume I” translated by Barbara J Haveland, Vincent Delecroix’s “Small Boat” translated by Helen Stevenson, Hiromi Kawakami’s “Under the Eye of the Big Perfection” translated by Asa Yoneda, Vincenzo Latronico’s “Perfection” translated by Sophie Hughes, and Anne Serre’s “A Leopard-Skin Hat” translated by Mark Hutchinson.
Who is Banu Mushtaq?
According to her author profile on the official Booker Prize website, Banu Mushtaq started writing within the progressive protest literary circles in the 1970s and 1908s. The 2025 judges hailed her “Heart Lamp” collection for “exploring the lives of those often on the periphery of society, these vivid stories hold immense emotional and moral weight.”
The 77-year-old winner of the International Booker Prize 2025 has authored six short story collections, a novel, an essay collection and a poetry collection. In addition to her latest global achievement, her writings in Kannada have secured other major awards, including the Karnataka Sahitya Academy and the Daana Chintamani Attimabbe awards.
Her Booker Prize-winning project marks the first book-length translation of her work into English (thanks to Deepa Bhasti). It was previously translated into Urdu, Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam.
Watch the moment Heart Lamp was announced as the winner of the #InternationalBooker2025, and hear what Banu Mushtaq and Deepa Bhasthi said in their speeches.https://t.co/fls1ayRPCn
— The Booker Prizes (@TheBookerPrizes) May 20, 2025
What empowers Banu Mushtaq’s stories?
Voicing the inspiration behind her writing, Banu Mushtaq said in an interview with The Booker Prize that the 1970s–defined by major movements in Karnataka, such as “the Dalit movement, farmers’ movement, language movement, rebellion movement, women’s struggles, environmental activism, and theatre, activities among others, had a profound impact” on her. She ultimately found the strength to write as she directly engaged with “marginalised communities, women and the neglected, along with their expressions.” Karnataka’s social conditions shaped her as a writer, leading up to the unforgettable 2025 Booker Prize win.
“My stories are about women – how religion, society, and politics demand unquestioning obedience from them, and in doing so, inflict inhumane cruelty upon them, turning them into mere subordinates,” Mushtaq said of “Heart Lamp.”
“The daily incidents reported in media and the personal experiences I have endured have been my inspiration. The pain, suffering, and helpless lives of these women create a deep emotional response within me, compelling me to write.”
Banu Mushtaq’s dedication to women’s rights also comes into play due to her background as a journalist and lawyer. In addition to her illustrious career tied to literature, she nurtured her journalistic integrity over a nearly decade-long profession. Plus, she even served two terms on the Hassan City municipal council.
“Kari Nagaragalu,” yet another short story by the Kannada writer that explored themes of gender inequalities and challenges faced by Muslim communities in South India, was adapted into the national award-winning film Hasina (2004) helmed by film director Girish Kasaravalli.
Banu Mushtaq: Kannada writer origin story
Having grown up in a small town in Karnataka, Mushtaq began writing while she was still in school. At the age of 26, she married a man of her choice, according to BBC. A year after she got married, her short story was spotted in a local magazine. Despite having grown in a Muslim neighbourhood and her Urdu being her first language, she ultimately struggled to adopt the state’s official language into her life as her father enrolled her in a convent school in her formative years. The same language that have once seemed foreign to her eventually became her choice of literary expression.
Having been open about the early days of marital strife in her life, the acclaimed author once said in a Vogue interview, “I had always wanted to write but had nothing to write (about) because suddenly, after a love marriage, I was told to wear a burqa and dedicate myself to domestic work. I became a mother suffering from postpartum depression at 29.”
In another interview with The Week, she laid bare how she broke free from a life of domestic confinement. “Once, in a fit of despair, I poured white petrol on myself, intending to set myself on fire. Thankfully, he [the husband] sensed it in time, hugged me, and took away the matchbox. He pleaded with me, placing our baby at my feet saying, ‘Don’t abandon us,” she told the magazine.
Mushtaq’s expression of defiance against societal expectations has even been aggressively challenged, as she revealed in a years-old interview to The Hindu. After she voiced her support for women’s right to offer prayers in mosques, she was subjected to threatening phone calls. Additionally, a fatwa was issued against her a man attempted to attack her with a knife. Mushtaq’s husband ultimately came to the rescue at the time.