Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah praised Mushtaq and Bhasthi and said it was time to celebrate Kannada, Kannadigas and Karnataka.
Published May 21, 2025 | 8:27 AM ⚊ Updated May 21, 2025 | 9:17 AM
Banu Mushtaq and Deepa Bhasthi with the award.
Synopsis: Banu Mushtaq became the first Kannada author to win the coveted International Booker Prize in London. Her short story collection ‘Heart Lamp’, translated into English by Deepa Bhasthi, won the prize.
Writer, activist and lawyer Banu Mushtaq on Tuesday, 20 May, became the first Kannada author to win the coveted International Booker Prize in London.
Her short story collection ‘Heart Lamp’, translated into English by writer, translator, and researcher Deepa Bhasthi, won the prize during the ceremony held at the Tate Modern on Tuesday evening.
Mushtaq collected the award along with Bhasthi and described her win as a victory for diversity.
The book was 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.
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.
“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.
“What a beautiful win this is for my beautiful language,” Bhasthi added.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah praised Mushtaq and Bhasthi and said it was time to celebrate Kannada, Kannadigas and Karnataka.
“Heartiest congratulations to the proud Kannada writer Banu Mushtaq for winning the International Booker Prize for Literature. This is a time to celebrate Kannada, Kannadigas and Karnataka,” he said in a post on X.
“Banu Mushtaq, who writes while embodying the true values of harmony, secularism, and brotherhood of this land, has raised the flag of Kannada’s greatness at the international level and brought respect to us all. I wish that she continues to write meaningfully for many more years and spread the vibe of Kannada to the world”
“On behalf of all Kannadigas, I would also like to congratulate the talented author Deepa Bhasthi, who has translated her Booker Prize-winning work ‘Hridaya Deepa‘ into English,” he added.
Author and Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor congratulated Mushtaq and said: “Another triumph for Indian writing, a celebration of diversity & of the writer’s belief that ‘no story is ever too small’.”
The other five books on the shortlist were: 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.
