Indian author Mushtaq wins International Booker Prize for Women!
Indian author Mushtaq wins International Booker Prize for Women!
on Tuesday evening, May 21, 2025, the Indian author and women's rights activist Banu Mushtaq was awarded the International Booker Prize in the Tate Modern Gallery in London. Mushtaq, who is 77 years old, shares the honor with her translator Deepa Bhasti. This year the prestigious price was first awarded for a short story collection.
The excellent collection is entitled "Heart Lamp" and consists of twelve stories that are written in the Kannada language. This language is spoken by around 65 million people, especially in southern India. The stories contained therein, which were written between 1990 and 2023, address the everyday struggles and the life of women in patriarchal societies.
influential topics and radical translation
Max Porter, chairman of the jury, praised the book as a "radical translation of beautiful, lively, life -affirming stories". He emphasized that the stories raise important questions about reproductive rights, belief, caste, power and oppression. These topics are not only relevant for India, but touch universal social problems.
Half of the prize money of £ 50,000 (approx. 59,000 euros) goes to Mushtaq, who also works as a lawyer and activist. The choice of stories and their translation were carefully curated by Bhasti, whereby it wanted to preserve the multilingual nature of South India. This special consideration ensures that the cultural nuances of the original stories are preserved in English.
Mushtaq received the inspiration for her stories from the people who turned to them. In her stories she would like to show how religion, society and politics demand obedience.
a milestone for Indian authors
The internationality of the book market is emphasized by Mushtaq and Shree alike. While Shree writes on Hindi, a language that many are spoken, Mushtaq has also dealt with the local language of the Kannada in her collection. These two authors show that despite the challenges with which women are confronted in the literary world, their voices are becoming increasingly important.
The future of Indian literature looks promising, and with the international success of Banu Mushtaq, the discourse on women, their struggles and their voices in literature further strengthen.
For more information on this topic, you can do the articles from vienna.at href = "https://www.cnn.com/2025/21/asia/indian-author-banu-mighttaq-wins-international-booker-prize-intl-hnk"> cnn and read SRF
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| Ort | Vienna, Österreich |
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