Heart Lamp by writer, lawyer and activist Banu Mushtaq, translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi, is the 2025 winner of the International Booker Prize, the world’s most influential award for translated fiction. The winning book is the first collection of short stories to be awarded the prize. Written between 1990 and 2023, Heart Lamp’s 12 stories chronicle the lives of women and girls in patriarchal communities in southern India.
The book’s publisher And Other Stories published Banu Mushtaq’s acceptance speech in English. Here’s her speech at London’s Tate Modern.
“If I may borrow a phrase from my own culture: this moment feels like a thousand fireflies lighting up a single sky—brief, brilliant, and utterly collective. To even stand among these extraordinary finalists is an honor I’ll never forget. And I accept this great honor not as an individual, but as a voice raised in chorus with so many others.
I am happy for the entire world which is full of diversity and inclusiveness. I am happy for myself and my translator Deepa Bhasthi. This is more than a personal achievement—it is an affirmation that we, as individuals and as a global community, can thrive when we embrace diversity, celebrate our differences, and uplift one another. Together, we create a world where every voice is heard, every story matters, and every person belongs.
First, to the Booker Prize committee—thank you for recognizing stories that dare to bridge worlds. To my relentless team: my visionary literary agent, Kanishka Gupta, who believed in this book before it had a heartbeat; my translator, Deepa Bhasthi, who turned my words into bridges; and my publishers—especially Penguin Random House and And Other Stories—who sent these stories sailing across languages and borders. This is your victory too. And to my family, friends, and readers: you are the soil where my stories grow.
This book is my love letter to the idea that no story is ‘local’—that a tale born under a banyan tree in my village can cast shadows as far as this stage to night. To every reader who journeyed with me: you’ve made my Kannada language a shared home. It is a language that sings of resilience and nuance. To write in Kannada is to inherit a legacy of cosmic wonder and earthly wisdom.
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. In a world that often tries to divide us, literature remains one of the last sacred spaces where we can live inside each other’s minds, if only for a few pages. To every reader who trusted me with their time: thank you for letting my words wander into your heart.
Tonight isn’t an endpoint—it’s a torch passed. May it light the way for more stories from unheard corners, more translations that defy borders, and more voices that remind us: the universe fits inside every ‘I.’ Thank you, from the depths of my soul.”
