Banu Mushtaq, an Indian author, lawyer, and activist, has made history by becoming the first writer in the Kannada language to receive the International Booker Prize.

Her award-winning book, Heart Lamp, is also the first short story collection to ever win the prize. Selected from a pool of six global finalists, the collection was lauded by the judges for its storytelling style, which they described as witty, vivid, colloquial, moving and excoriating.

Heart Lamp features stories written over a span of three decades, from 1990 to 2023. The anthology offers a powerful and personal portrayal of the lives and hardships faced by Muslim women in southern India. The themes explore gender, religion, social restrictions, and resistance—subjects that reflect Mushtaq’s lived experience and deep understanding of the community she writes about.

Mushtaq’s path to literary recognition was far from conventional. Born in a modest town in Karnataka, she grew up in a Muslim neighborhood and received her early education in religious studies, particularly the Quran. A turning point came when her father, a government employee, enrolled her in a convent school at the age of eight. There, she learned Kannada—the state’s official language—which would become the foundation of her literary voice.

Unlike many girls in her community who followed traditional roles early in life, Mushtaq focused on her education and began writing while still in school. Her first short story wasn’t published until she was 27, a year after marrying a partner of her own choosing—another departure from societal norms.

Mushtaq's professional life has been diverse. She worked as a journalist for a local Kannada tabloid for ten years, using her reporting to highlight social issues. Later, she pursued a legal career, balancing her work in law with her commitment to writing. Throughout her journey, she remained active in the Bandaya movement—a progressive literary and social campaign in Karnataka that addresses systemic inequality through literature and activism.

The International Booker Prize is one of the most esteemed literary awards globally. Since its inception in 1969, the prize has recognized outstanding fiction translated into English. It is judged by a panel of literary experts and offers a significant financial reward of £50,000. More importantly, it dramatically enhances an author's global reach, opening doors to international publishing, translation, and adaptation opportunities.

Mushtaq now joins a list of notable Indian women who have won Booker prizes in the past, including Arundhati Roy (The God of Small Things, 1997), Kiran Desai (The Inheritance of Loss, 2006), and Geetanjali Shree (Ret Samadhi, 2022). Each of these authors brought regional voices to a global platform.