India’s Banu Mushtaq and Deepa Bhasthi Win International Booker Prize 2025 for Heart Lamp.

Awards

On 20 May 2025, Bengaluru (Karnataka)-based writer, lawyer, and activist Banu Mushtaq, along with translator Deepa Bhasthi, won the International Booker Prize 2025 for the Kannada short story collection Heart Lamp: Selected Stories.


      - The award was announced by author Max Porter at a ceremony held at the Tate Modern in London, United Kingdom.

      - This is the first time a short story collection and a work originally written in Kannada have received the prestigious prize.

      - Banu Mushtaq became the first Kannada author and the first Muslim woman from India to win the International Booker Prize. She is also the sixth female author to receive the award since its inception in 2016.

Main Point :-   (i) The book was translated into English by Deepa Bhasthi, who became the first Indian translator and the ninth female translator to win the International Booker Prize.

      (ii) Heart Lamp marks the second Indian victory at the International Booker Prize, following Geetanjali Shree (author) and Daisy Rockwell (translator) winning in 2022 for Tomb of Sand, the first Hindi novel to receive the honor.

(iii) The award carries a cash prize of £50,000 (approximately USD 66,000), which was equally shared between Banu Mushtaq and Deepa Bhasthi.

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