International Booker Prize 2025

Banu Mushtaq’s short story collection in Kannada Hridaya Deepa (Heart Lamp), translated into English by Deepa Bhasthi, bagged the £50,000 International Booker Prize 2025. She is first Kannada writer to receive the International Booker Prize.

About Banu Mushtaq

• Banu Mushtaq was born in Hassan on April 3, 1948. Apart from being a writer, she has been an activist, journalist, lawyer and politician. She holds B.Sc and LLB degrees.
• Heart Lamp collection, comprising 12 short stories, offers a powerful portrayal of the resilience, resistance, humour, and solidarity among women in patriarchal communities in southern India. Drawing deeply from the oral storytelling traditions of the region, the stories span over three decades, written between 1990 and 2023.
• Her other works include Hejje Moodida Haadi (1990), Benki Male (1999), Edeya Hanate (2004), Safeera (2006), Haseena Mattu Itara Kathegalu (2015) and Hennu Haddina Swayamvara (2022).
• Her story Black Cobra, included in Heart Lamp, was adapted into the award-winning film Hasina by Girish Kasaravalli.

International Booker Prize

• The prize, which is awarded annually, celebrates the best works of long-form fiction or collections of short stories translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland.

• It recognises the vital work of translators, with the £50,000 prize money divided equally between authors and translators. In addition, shortlisted authors and translators each receive £2,500.