Heart Lamp Illuminates Booker History: Kannada Short Stories Win Big

In a momentous milestone for Indian literature, Banu Mushtaq’s short story collection Heart Lamp has clinched the 2025 International Booker Prize, marking several historic firsts: it’s the first-ever Kannada-language work and the first short story collection to win this prestigious award.

The announcement was made at a ceremony at London’s Tate Modern, with judges led by Max Porter awarding Mushtaq and her translator Deepa Bhasthi the £50,000 prize, to be shared equally.

Comprising twelve stories written between the 1990s and 2023, Heart Lamp captures intimate, richly textured narratives centered on women in Muslim communities of southern India—exploring themes of caste, gender, faith, and resistance.

Drawing from her experiences as a lawyer and activist in Karnataka, Mushtaq brings resilience and protest literature traditions into poignant, everyday storytelling—her roots in the Bandaya Sahitya movement endow the collection with a sharp moral voice.

The translation by Deepa Bhasthi has earned widespread acclaim, described by judges as “radical” and capable of enriching English with textures of Kannada, Urdu, and Arabic, creating what she calls a translation with an accent.

Bhasthi becomes not only the first Indian translator but also the first woman from India—and the first-ever translator to partner on a short-story collection—for a Booker triumph.

Critics across publications such as The Guardian, Scroll, and Financial Times have praised the collection for blending dark humor with social critique while preserving a lyrical, regionally rooted sensibility.

This win far surpasses individual recognition: it is being celebrated as a watershed moment for Kannada literature and the broader visibility of regional Indian languages on the global stage.

With Heart Lamp, Mushtaq and Bhasthi have opened a vibrant new chapter for Kannada storytelling, illuminating narratives that might otherwise remain in the shadows.