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South China Morning Post
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Indian activist author wins 2025 International Booker Prize for short story collection
Indian writer, lawyer and activist Banu Mushtaq has won the 2025 International Booker Prize for her short story collection Heart Lamp. 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 reacts after winning the 2025 International Booker Prize. Photo: AP Mushtaq will share the £50,000 (US$67,000) prize with her translator, Deepa Bhasthi, who also helped choose the stories.
Irish Times
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
International Booker Prize 2025: Indian author and translators are first to win with a short story collection
Heart Lamp by Indian author Banu Mushtaq, translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi, has won the International Booker Prize, the world's most influential award for translated fiction. The winning book, the first collection of short stories to be awarded the prize, was announced by author Max Porter, chair of the 2025 judges, at a ceremony in London's Tate Modern. The prize recognises the vital work of translation, with the £50,000 prize money divided equally between author and translator. The winning collection of 12 short stories chronicles the resilience, resistance, wit and sisterhood of women in patriarchal communities in southern India, vividly brought to life through a rich tradition of oral storytelling. From tough, stoic mothers to opinionated grandmothers, from cruel husbands to resilient children, the female characters in the stories endure great inequities and hardships but remain defiant. Mushtaq, a lawyer and leading voice within progressive Kannada literature, is a prominent champion of women's rights and a protester against caste and religious oppression in India, and was inspired to write the stories by the experiences of women who came to her seeking help. READ MORE The stories in Heart Lamp, which is the first winner of the International Booker Prize to be translated from Kannada, spoken by an estimated 65 million people, 38 million as a first language, were written by Mushtaq over more than 30 years, from 1990 to 2023. They were selected and curated by Bhasthi, who was keen to preserve the multi-lingual nature of southern India. When the characters use Urdu or Arabic words in conversation, these are left in the original, reproducing the unique rhythms of spoken language. " Heart Lamp is something genuinely new for English readers," Porter said. 'A radical translation which ruffles language, to create new textures in a plurality of Englishes. It challenges and expands our understanding of translation. These beautiful, busy, life-affirming stories rise from Kannada, interspersed with the extraordinary socio-political richness of other languages and dialects. It speaks of women's lives, reproductive rights, faith, caste, power and oppression. This was the book the judges really loved, right from our first reading.' Fiammetta Rocco, prize administrator, said: " Heart Lamp , stories written by a great advocate of women's rights over three decades and translated with sympathy and ingenuity, should be read by men and women all over the world. The book speaks to our times, and to the ways in which many are silenced. 'In a divided world, a younger generation is increasingly connecting with global stories that have been skilfully reworked for English-language readers through the art of translation. Since 2016, the International Booker Prize has promoted the world's best writing in translation.' The winning book was chosen by Porter, prize-winning poet, director and photographer Caleb Femi; writer and publishing director of Wasafiri Sana Goyal; author and translator Anton Hur; and singer-songwriter Beth Orton. Both Mushtaq and Bhasthi were nominated for the International Booker Prize for the first time this year and Heart Lamp is Mushtaq's first English-language publication. Mushtaq is the second Indian author to win the prize, and follows Geetanjali Shree who won in 2022 for Tomb of Sand, translated from Hindi by Daisy Rockwell. Bhasthi is the first Indian translator to win the prize. Mushtaq is the sixth female author, with Bhasthi the ninth female translator, to be awarded the prize since it took on its current form in 2016. At just over 200 pages long, Heart Lamp was the second longest book on a shortlist of slim books: four of the six shortlisted works are under 200 pages long, with Under the Eye of the Big Bird the longest, at 278 pages. This is the first International Booker Prize win for Sheffield-based independent publisher And Other Stories, though their sixth nomination for the prize. 'My stories are about women – how religion, society, and politics demand unquestioning obedience from them, and in doing so, inflict inhumane cruelty upon them, turning them into mere subordinates," Mushtaq said. 'The daily incidents reported in media and the personal experiences I have endured have been my inspiration. The pain, suffering and helpless lives of these women create a deep emotional response within me, compelling me to write. 'Stories for the Heart Lamp collection were chosen from around 50 stories in six story collections I wrote between 1990 and later. Usually, there will be a single draft, and the second one will be a final copy. I do not engage in extensive research; my heart itself is my field of study. The more intensely the incidents affect me, the more deeply and emotionally I write.' Bhasti said: 'For me, translation is an instinctive practice in many ways, and I have found that each book demands a completely different process. With Banu's stories, I first read all the fiction she had published before I narrowed it down to the ones that are in Heart Lamp . I was lucky to have a free hand in choosing what stories I wanted to work with, and Banu did not interfere with the organised chaotic way I went about it. 'I was very conscious of the fact that I knew very little about the community she places her stories in. Thus, during the period I was working on the first draft, I found myself immersed in the very addictive world of Pakistani television dramas, music by old favourites like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Ali Sethi, Arooj Aftab and others, and I even took classes to learn the Urdu script. I suppose these things somehow helped me get under the skin of the stories and the language she uses. 'When one translates, the aim is to introduce the reader to new words, in this case, Kannada (...) I call it translating with an accent, which reminds the reader that they are reading a work set in another culture, without exoticising it, of course. So the English in Heart Lamp is an English with a very deliberate Kannada hum to it."
The Guardian
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘Radical translation' of Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq wins International Booker prize
Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq, translated by Deepa Bhasthi, has won this year's International Booker prize for translated fiction, becoming the first short story collection to take the award. The stories were originally written in Kannada, the official language of the state of Karnataka in southern India. Described by the author and chair of judges Max Porter as 'something genuinely new for English readers: a radical translation' of 'beautiful, busy, life-affirming stories', Heart Lamp's 12 tales chronicle the lives of women in patriarchal communities in southern India. They were selected as well as translated by Bhasthi, the first Indian translator to win the award. She chose them from around 50 stories in six collections written by Mushtaq over a 30-year-period. The £50,000 prize – shared equally between writer and translator – was presented at the Tate Modern in London on Tuesday evening, where a video of actor Ambika Mod reading from the winning title was also shown. Writing about the shortlist in the Guardian, John Self said Mushtaq and Bhasthi's 'wonderful collection' would be a 'worthy winner'. The tone of the book 'varies from quiet to comic, but the vision is consistent', he wrote. Porter said he and his fellow judges – poet Caleb Femi, writer and Guardian critic Sana Goyal, author and translator Anton Hur and musician Beth Orton – spent six hours deliberating, during which they 'argued a lot' before 'unanimously' deciding the winner. Though Porter said they were looking for the 'best book' above all else, he called Heart Lamp a 'really special book in terms of its politics'. The stories 'contain the feminism for which [Mushtaq] is known. And they contain extraordinary accounts of patriarchal systems and resistance,' he added. 'But they aren't activist stories. First and foremost they're beautiful accounts of everyday life and particularly the lives of women.' Porter also praised Bhasthi's translation, which he said 'celebrates the movement from one language to another. It contains a multiplicity of Englishes. It is a translation with a texture.' Sign up to Bookmarks Discover new books and learn more about your favourite authors with our expert reviews, interviews and news stories. Literary delights delivered direct to you after newsletter promotion 'When one translates, the aim is to introduce the reader to new words,' Bhasthi said in an interview with earlier this year. 'I call it translating with an accent, which reminds the reader that they are reading a work set in another culture, without exoticising it, of course. So the English in Heart Lamp is an English with a very deliberate Kannada hum to it.' The other books shortlisted for the prize were On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle, translated by Barbara J Haveland; Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix, translated by Helen Stevenson; Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami, translated by Asa Yoneda; Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico, translated by Sophie Hughes; and A Leopard-Skin Hat by Anne Serre, translated by Mark Hutchinson. Last year's winner was Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated by Michael Hofmann. Previous winners include Olga Tokarczuk and translator Jennifer Croft, Lucas Rijneveld and translator Michele Hutchison and Han Kang and translator Deborah Smith.
The Guardian
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Willkommen, bienvenue! New festival celebrates translated fiction from Cameroon to Slovakia as sales boom
A new festival of translated literature is being launched in Bristol next week amid a sales boom in translated fiction in the UK. Translated By, Bristol is the brainchild of Polly Barton, author and translator of the award-winning Butter by Asako Yuzuki, and Tom Robinson, owner of Gloucester Road Books, which is organising the festival alongside Barton and another independent Bristol bookshop, Storysmith. 'Translated fiction becoming more popular in recent years has not necessarily led to a greater appreciation for the work of translators, or much consideration of the act of translation itself,' says Robinson. 'We wanted to think about whether there was something we could do that would address both of these concerns.' The festival, which runs 12-25 May, will feature a conversation between five translators shortlisted for the International Booker prize and a 'translation duel' – in which translators debate their translations of a text in front of an audience – among other events. UK readers continue to have strong appetites for translated fiction, with Butter selling almost 250,000 copies in the UK last year. Social media buzz around particular titles has helped shift copies: Ros Schwartz's translation of Jacqueline Harpman's I Who Have Never Known Men, a favourite on 'BookTok', sold 45,000 copies last year, an elevenfold rise on 2022 sales. Festival organisers were aware of increased interest in translated literature from readers, meaning they felt the festival 'would have a breadth of appeal it might not have done, say, five years ago', says Barton. A central reason for the recent success of translated literature is the work of independent publishers such as Fitzcarraldo, Peirene and Comma, say the organisers. Those presses 'tend to be more willing to take risks', adds Robinson. One of the key aims of the festival is to showcase a 'breadth of languages and geographies, beyond the major languages and locations of Europe, which tend to occupy so much focus', says Robinson. The programme features an event on translating the work of the Cameroonian poet Jean-Claude Awono and another with Hassan Blasim, who writes in Arabic, along with his translator Jonathan Wright. The festival will also host a conversation between two prominent translators of Latin American literature, Frank Wynne and Annie McDermott. 'We also have events featuring European languages that aren't the five or so that get the most attention,' says Barton, with conversations about books translated from Slovakian (This Room Is Impossible to Eat by Nicol Hochholczerová, translated by Julia and Peter Sherwood) and Danish (Iron Lung by Kirstine Reffstrup, translated by Hunter Simpson). Barton sees this approach of 'actively looking beyond our immediate borders' as helping to 'resist the political currents promoting xenophobia, prejudice and cultural homogeneity'. The festival will also see Max Porter talking to two of his translators, Saskia van der Lingen (Dutch) and Charles Recoursé (French). It will close with the translation duel, featuring Adriana Hunter and Wynne. 'The language of the slam this year is French, and we're distributing the text to people in advance, so there's the opportunity for people with a little French knowledge to have a go themselves if they like,' says Robinson. Duels are an 'excellent way of opening up the process for people and allowing them to get a sense of how creative translation really is', adds Barton. Translated By, Bristol is on 12-25 May
