'I Write Because Their Pain Won’t Let Me Sleep': Booker Winner Banu Mushtaq on Giving Voice to India’s Silent Sufferings
Banu Mushtaq, a longtime women’s rights advocate and Kannada writer, won the 2025 International Booker Prize for Heartlamp, a collection of short stories drawn from decades of listening to the silences and struggles of Indian women. In this conversation with TOI’s Jaya Bhattacharji Rose, she shares why she writes, how pain becomes protest, and what her win means for voices from the margins
Banu Mushtaq, a longtime women’s rights advocate and Kannada writer, won the 2025 International Booker Prize for Heartlamp, a collection of short stories drawn from decades of listening to the silences and struggles of Indian women. In this conversation with TOI’s Jaya Bhattacharji Rose, she shares why she writes, how pain becomes protest, and what her win means for voices from the margins
