Article Title: Heart Lamp glows, story collection wins the Booker prize for Banu and Deepa
22-05-2025
Summits and Organisations Current Affairs Analysis
Context
• Kannada writer, lawyer, and activist Banu Mushtaq, 77, began writing about her people, their joys, sorrows and anxieties, over five decades ago.
• On Tuesday, Heart Lamp, a collection of 12 short stories selected from her work written between 1990 and 2023 and translated by Deepa Bhasthi, won the International Booker Prize for 2025 from a shortlist featuring books in French, Italian, Danish, and Japanese.
• It’s a first win for Kannada, and the first time in the history of the prize that a collection of short stories has been honoured.
• The award for an Indian writer comes three years after Geetanjali Shree won the prestigious literary prize for Tomb of Sand, translated from Hindi by Daisy Rockwell.
Booker Prize
• The Booker Prize was first awarded in 1969. The inaugural Booker Prize was awarded to P.H. Newby for his novel “Something to Answer For”.
• Founders: Tom Maschler and Graham C Greene.
• Until 2014, only novels written by Commonwealth, Irish, and South African citizens were eligible to receive the prize. Later, it was expanded to all nationalities.
• Important winners: 1st Indian origin winner – VS Naipaul, 1st Indian citizen winner – Arundhati Roy.
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