Meet Banu Mushtaq: First Kannada Author To Win International Booker Prize 2025 For ‘Heart Lamp’

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In a historic moment for Indian literature, 77-year-old Kannada writer, lawyer, and activist Banu Mushtaq has won the International Booker Prize for her short story collection Heart Lamp. She is the first Kannada author to receive this prestigious award. The book includes 12 stories that highlight the daily lives and challenges of Muslim women in Karnataka over a period of 30 years, from 1990 to 2023.

Deepa Bhasthi, who translated the collection into English, also received the International Booker Prize along with Banu Mushtaq. With this win, Mushtaq becomes part of a distinguished group of Indian authors who have received the prestigious award since it began in 1969. This list includes V.S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, Kiran Desai, Aravind Adiga, and Geetanjali Shree.

Who is Banu Mustaq?

Banu Mushtaq, who comes from Hassan in Karnataka, wrote her first short story when she was in middle school. She gained attention in the literary world when her first story was published at the age of 26 in the popular Kannada magazine Prajamata. According to her profile on The Booker Prize website, she has written six collections of short stories, a novel, a collection of essays, and a book of poetry.

In an interview with the Booker Prize Foundation, Mushtaq shared that her inspiration came from the Dalit movement, farmers’ movement, language movement, women’s struggles, and environmental activism in the 1970s, all of which she experienced while growing up in Karnataka.

Banu Mustaq and her writings

In Heart Lamp, the female characters reflect a strong spirit of resistance and resilience. Mushtaq later worked as a reporter for a well-known local tabloid and was involved with the Bandaya movement, which focused on fighting social and economic injustices through literature and activism. After a decade in journalism, she left the field and became a lawyer to support her family.

Over her long and distinguished career, she has published a large body of work, including six short story collections, a novel, and an essay collection. However, her sharp and powerful writing has also made her a target of hatred.

Besides her award-winning work, she has written six short story collections, a novel, an essay collection, and a poetry collection. She has received recognition from the Karnataka Sahitya Academy and the Daana Chintamani Attimabbe awards for her contributions. Additionally, her first five short stories were published together in a single volume titled Haseena Matthu Ithara Kathegalu in 2013, and in 2023, another collection called Hennu Haddina Swayamvara was released.