Indian writer, lawyer and activist Banu Mushtaq has won the 2025 International Booker Prize for her short story collection Heart Lamp.
Advertisement
The 77-year-old is the first author of literature in Kannada, a language spoken predominantly in the southwest Indian state of Karnataka, to receive the prestigious literary award for translated fiction.
“This moment feels like a thousand fire flies lighting a single sky – brief, brilliant and utterly collective,” Mushtaq said at a ceremony at the Tate Modern gallery in London.
“I accept this great honour not as an individual but as a voice raised in chorus with so many others.”
Mushtaq will share the £50,000 (US$67,000) prize with her translator, Deepa Bhasthi, who also helped choose the stories.
Advertisement