Banu Mushtaq and Jenny Erpenbeck in Conversation

Banu Mushtaq is an acclaimed Indian writer, women’s rights activist, and lawyer, and the 2025 International Booker Prize winner for Heart Lamp, her first collection of short stories, translated by Deepa Bhasthi. Mushtaq began writing within the progressive protest literary circles in southwestern India in the 1970s and 80s. Critical of the caste system, the Bandaya Sahitya movement gave rise to influential Dalit and Muslim writers, of whom Mushtaq was one of the few women. She is the author of six short story collections, a novel, an essay collection, and a poetry collection. She writes in Kannada and has won the Karnataka Sahitya Academy and Daana Chintamani Attimabbe awards.

Banu Mushtaq adalah penulis terkemuka asal India yang meraih International Booker Prize 2025 untuk Heart Lamp, kumpulan cerita pendek pertamanya yang diterjemahkan oleh Deepa Bhasthi. Selain menulis, ia juga berprofesi sebagai pengacara dan aktif memperjuangkan hak-hak perempuan. Ia mulai menulis pada 1970–1980-an, sebagai bagian dari gerakan Bandaya Sahitya, gerakan sastra perlawanan di India barat daya yang menentang sistem kasta dan mendorong keadilan sosial. Mushtaq termasuk sedikit perempuan penulis dalam gerakan ini dan menjadi suara penting bagi komunitas Dalit dan Muslim. Ia menulis dalam bahasa Kannada, dan telah menerbitkan enam kumpulan cerita pendek, satu novel, satu buku esai, dan satu kumpulan puisi. Karyanya telah mendapat sejumlah penghargaan, termasuk dari Karnataka Sahitya Academy dan Daana Chintamani Attimabbe Award.

Jenny Erpenbeck is an acclaimed German author and the winner of the 2024 International Booker Prize for her novel, Kairos. Born in East Berlin, Erpenbeck is the author of works of fiction including Wörterbuch, published in English as The Book of Words; Geschichte vom alten Kind, published in English as The Old Child; Heimsuchung, published in English as Visitation; and the nonfiction collection Kein Roman, published in English as Not a Novel. She also won the Hans Fallada Prize and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for her 2012 novel Aller Tage Abend, published in English as The End of Days. Her novel Gehen, ging, gegangen, published in English as Go, Went, Gone, was shortlisted for the Deutscher Buchpreis in 2017. Jenny was awarded the Thomas Mann Prize in 2016, and she was a finalist for the 2024 Neustadt Prize.

Jenny Erpenbeck adalah penulis Jerman ternama yang memenangkan International Booker Prize 2024 untuk novelnya Kairos. Lahir di Berlin Timur, Erpenbeck dikenal lewat karya-karya fiksi seperti Wörterbuch (diterjemahkan dalam bahasa Inggris sebagai The Book of Words), Geschichte vom alten Kind (The Old Child), Heimsuchung (Visitation), serta kumpulan nonfiksi Kein Roman (Not a Novel). Ia telah menerima berbagai penghargaan bergengsi atas karya-karyanya. Bukunya yang terbit pada 2012, The End of Days, memenangkan Hans Fallada Prize dan Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. Novelnya Gehen, ging, gegangen (Go, Went, Gone) dinominasikan untuk Deutscher Buchpreis pada tahun 2017. Erpenbeck juga menerima Thomas Mann Prize pada 2016 dan masuk nominasi Neustadt International Prize for Literature pada 2024.