Hyderabad: Writer, activist and lawyer Banu Mushtaq's short story collection 'Heart Lamp' on Tuesday night became the first Kannada title to win the coveted GBP 50,000 International Booker Prize in London. Mushtaq described her win as a victory for diversity as she collected the prize at a ceremony at the Tate Modern along with her translator Deepa Bhasthi, who translated the title from Kannada to English.
Shortlisted among six worldwide titles, Mushtaq’s work appealed to the judges for its “witty, vivid, colloquial, moving and excoriating” style of capturing portraits of family and community tensions. "This book was born from the belief that no story is ever small, that in the tapestry of human experience every thread holds the weight of the whole," said Mushtaq.
"In a world that often tries to divide us, literature remains one of the lost sacred spaces where we can live inside each other's minds, if only for a few pages," she said. Translator Bhashti added: "What a beautiful win this is for my beautiful language." The annual prize celebrates the best works of long-form fiction or collections of short stories translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland between May 2024 and April 2025.
The other five books on the shortlisted included: ‘On the Calculation of Volume I’ by Solvej Balle, translated from Danish by Barbara J. Haveland; ‘Small Boat’ by Vincent Delecroix, translated from French by Helen Stevenson; ‘Under the Eye of the Big Bird’ by Hiromi Kawakami, translated from Japanese by Asa Yoneda; ‘Perfection’ by Vincenzo Latronico, translated from Italian by Sophie Hughes; and ‘A Leopard-Skin Hat’ by Anne Serre, translated from French by Mark Hutchinson.
Max Porter, International Booker Prize 2025 Chair of judges, said: “This list is our celebration of fiction in translation as a vehicle for pressing and surprising conversations about humanity. These mind-expanding books ask what might be in store for us, or how we might mourn, worship or survive. They offer knotty, sometimes pessimistic, sometimes radically hopeful answers to these questions.
"They build a miraculous lens through which to view human experience, both the truly disturbing and the achingly beautiful. They are each highly specific windows onto a world, but they are all gorgeously universal." Each shortlisted title is awarded a prize of GBP 5,000 – shared between author and translator and the winning prize money is split between Mushtaq and Bhashti, who receive GBP 25,000 each.
In 2022, Geetanjali Shree and translator Daisy Rockwell won the coveted prize for the first-ever Hindi novel ‘Tomb of Sand’, with Perumal Murugan’s Tamil novel ‘Pyre’, translated into English by Aniruddhan Vasudevan, making it to the longlist in 2023.
Congratulatory Messages Pour In
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Union Minister for Heavy Industries and Steel H.D. Kumaraswamy conveyed their heartfelt congratulations on Wednesday to Mushtaq. Siddaramaiah said, "Heartfelt congratulations to Banu Mushtaq, the proud Kannada writer who has been honoured with the International Booker Prize. This is a moment of celebration for Kannada, Kannadigas, and Karnataka."
Heartfelt congratulations to Kannada’s pride, author Banu Mushtaq, who has been awarded the International Booker Prize. This is a moment of celebration for Kannada, Kannadigas, and Karnataka.
— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) May 21, 2025
Banu Mushtaq, who embodies and writes with the true values of this land, which is… pic.twitter.com/yKhxUNZ2ax
"Banu Mushtaq, who has embraced and expressed the true values of harmony, secularism, and brotherhood rooted in this land, has brought great pride to us all by raising the flag of Kannada's literary excellence on an international platform. I wish that she continues to write with the same integrity and spirit for many more years, spreading the fragrance of Kannada literature across the world," the CM added. "I also extend congratulations, on behalf of all Kannadigas, to the talented writer Deepa Bhasthi, who translated the Booker-winning work 'Hridaya Deepa' into English," he said.
ಸಮಸ್ತ ಕನ್ನಡಿಗರಿಗೆ ಇದು ಹೆಮ್ಮೆಯ ಕ್ಷಣ. ಜಾಗತಿಕ ಬೂಕರ್ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯ ಪ್ರಶಸ್ತಿ ಪುರಸ್ಕೃತರಾಗಿರುವ ನಮ್ಮ ನಾಡಿನ ಹೆಮ್ಮೆಯ ಲೇಖಕಿ ಶ್ರೀಮತಿ ಬಾನು ಮುಷ್ತಾಕ್ ಅವರಿಗೆ ಹೃದಯಪೂರ್ವಕ ಅಭಿನಂದನೆಗಳು.
— ಹೆಚ್.ಡಿ.ಕುಮಾರಸ್ವಾಮಿ | H.D.Kumaraswamy (@hd_kumaraswamy) May 21, 2025
ಹಾಗೆಯೇ; ಬೂಕರ್ ಪ್ರಶಸ್ತಿ ಪುರಸ್ಕೃತವಾಗಿರುವ ಅವರ ಹೃದಯ ದೀಪ ಕೃತಿಯನ್ನು ಇಂಗ್ಲೀಷ್ ಭಾಷೆಗೆ ಅನುವಾದಿಸಿರುವ ಲೇಖಕಿ ದೀಪಾ ಭಸ್ತಿ ಅವರಿಗೂ… pic.twitter.com/iPB2LNzYeF
Union Minister Kumaraswamy said, "This is a proud moment for all Kannadigas. Heartfelt congratulations to Banu Mushtaq, the esteemed writer from our land, who has been honoured with the prestigious International Booker Prize."Congratulations also to writer Deepa Bhasthi, who translated Banu Mushtaq's Booker Prize-winning work 'Hridaya Deepa' into English, he said."May Banu Mushtaq continue to create many more such remarkable works. I wish that Kannada literature grows even richer through her contributions and that the fragrance of Kannada spreads across the world," H. D. Kumaraswamy said.
