With the 2025 International Booker Prize shortlist out, Banu Mushtaq’s ‘Heart Lamp’ translated into English from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi has gained recognition, primarily, for the reason that it is a regional work. Owing to this, it has brought Kannada literature into limelight. Mushtaq, a renowned Kannada writer, lawyer also known for her activism through poignant selection has inked the quotidian lives of Muslim women in Southern India.

‘Heart Lamp’, a short-story collection, is a blend of humor and critique. She emerged in the literary scene in the 70s and the 80s with the Bandaya Sahitya Movement challenging class, caste and social inequality on multiple levels. Though, it’s a historic moment for Kannada literature, the reverberation of a glowing literary future has been felt since UR Ananthamurthy’s Samskara (2013). Set in stone, it has been selected out of 154 submissions worldwide.

Mushtaq at 77 has several feathers on her hat. By now, she has penned six short stories, a collection of essays and poetries. Her gamut of works had her receive Karnataka Sahitya Akademi and Danna Chintamani Attimabbe awards. Previously, her works had been translated into other regional languages in India like Urdu, Malayalam, Hindi and Tamil. The cultural impact of ‘Heart Lamp’ is considerable enough in bringing the marginalized voices from South Asia to the center.

For 33 years between 1990-2023, Banu wrote ‘Heart Lamp’. It’s a collection of 12 short stories on Muslim and Dalit women. It is a testament of the firebrand writer’s resistance to patriarchy, class, caste and dogmatic views. Her stories have been adapted into films, published in magazines like The Baffler and The Paris Review.