Dear reader,

This week, Banu Mushtaq’s Heart Lamp, a collection of Kannada short stories translated into English by Deepa Bhasthi, won the 2025 International Booker Prize.

This is bigger than a prize. It is a moment for Indian languages, for feminist storytelling and the transformative power of translation. And we sat down with Banu Mushtaq and Deepa Bhasthi earlier this year.

We spoke to Mushtaq about storytelling as resistance and how her “writing is a dialogue with the masses”.

‘The inner emotions of legal practice serve as raw, real-life material for my writing’: Banu Mushtaq

An interview with the author of ‘Heart Lamp: Selected Stories’, which has been shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in Deepa Bhasthi’s translation.

scroll.in

We also spoke to Bhasthi about what it means to “translate with an accent”.

‘With an accent’: How Deepa Bhasthi translated International Booker Prize-shortlisted ‘Heart Lamp’

An interview with Deepa Bhasthi, whose translation of Banu Mushtaq’s ‘Heart Lamp’ is the first Kannada – and second Indian – book to make the Prize shortlist.

scroll.in

Earlier this month Bhasthi also wrote for us about the quiet strength and shared codes of women’s lives – and the challenge and joy of translating that world into English in Heart Lamp.

‘Women need their own rooms in their own worlds’: Deepa Bhasthi on translating the female language

The International Booker Prize-shortlisted translator reflects on translating Kannada writers Kodagina Gouramma and Banu Mushtaq.

scroll.in

Support our work so we can keep bringing you stories like this. Become a Scroll member today.

Scroll Membership

Support Free & Independent Journalism

scroll.in

Best,
Team Scroll