‘To write in Kannada is to inherit a legacy of cosmic wonder and earthly wisdom': Banu Mushtaq

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4 days ago

On May 20, Banu Mushtaq became the first Kannada-language writer to win the International Booker Prize. She shared the £50,000 award with her translator Deepa Bhasthi – the first Indian translator to win the award – for Heart Lamp, a collection of her selected stories. Here are the texts of their acceptance speeches at the award cermony at Tate Modern, London.
Banu Mushtaq
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 honour I'll never forget. And I accept this great honour 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 recognising 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 tonight. 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.
Deepa Bhasthi
Ellarigu Namaskara.
Hello everyone.
The story of the world, if you think about it, is really a history of erasures. It is characterised by the effacement of women's triumphs and the furtive rubbing away from collective memory of how women and those on the many margins of this world live and love. This Prize is a small win in a long, ongoing battle against such violences.
Elsewhere, there is erasure, in the media, in people's understanding of works of literature, of translators and the work we do to bring what would otherwise be unread, uncelebrated texts to new and very different sets of readers. Which is why it is so heartening that the International Booker celebrates and places both writers and writer-translators on the same page, so to speak.
Thank you first and foremost to the International Booker judges for loving these stories and my translation of them. And what a win this is for my beautiful language: Jenina holeyo, halina maleyo, sudheyo Kannada savi nudiyo, goes a song, calling the Kannada language a river of honey, a rain of milk, and compares it to sweet ambrosia. Kannada is one of the oldest languages on earth and I am ecstatic that this will hopefully lead to a greater interest in reading and writing and translating more from and into the language, and by extension, from and into the other magical languages we have in South Asia.
Thank you to my incredible editor Tara Tobler, for sprinkling gold dust over my work. Thank you to the dream team at And Other Stories, to Stefan, Michael, and others. As also to the wonderful people back home, at Penguin Random House India, to Moutushi [Mukhrjee], Milee [Ashwarya], et all.
Thank you to my wonderful agent Kanishka Gupta for… absolutely everything. The last few months would have been unmanageable without you.
To Priya Mathew, to Farah Ali, friends old and new, thank you for the grace, for the sisterhood.
Thank you to my parents Sudha and Prakash, who don't always understand why I do what I do, but cheer me on nonetheless. And most importantly, my husband Nan, the greatest love of my life, I miss you so much here tonight. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for what would I ever do without you!
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