Banu Mushtaq

Shrimati Banu Mushtaq, writer, lawyer and proud daughter of Hassan, has lived many lives—corporator, journalist with Lankesh Patrike, and a fearless literary voice. Her collected short stories, Hasina mattu itara kategalu, sit alongside her poetry, essays and a novel, all deeply rooted in justice and lived experience. She translated the Domestic Violence Act into Kannada as a legal resource, and brought Adil Shahi literature from Urdu into Kannada. Her work has travelled across languages—Urdu, English, Malayalam, Tamil, Punjabi. A film based on her story Hasina won three National Awards. Among her many accolades, the crowning glory came when Heart Lamp, the English translation of her stories, won the International Booker Prize in 2025—an honour for her, and for Kannada literature itself.