30 h. ago ‘My legal work sows the seeds of my stories’: International Booker prize winner Banu Mushtaq

The author and activist, who was subject to a fatwa in 2000, has won the prestigious prize for translated fiction for her short stories about the lives of Muslim women. She and her translator Deepa Bhasthi explain how Heart Lamp’s themes ‘are universal’• ‘Radical translation’ of Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq wins International Booker prize‘Human beings and their basic nature are the same everywhere,” Banu Mushtaq says. “That is the intention of my writing. The theme is woman, the theme is marginalised people, the theme is to be a voice to the voiceless community.”Mushtaq, from the Karnataka region of southern India, has been “awake all night”, she says, as we speak on the morning after she won the International Booker prize in London for her book Heart Lamp. The prize is shared between Mushtaq and her translator Deepa Bhasthi, who is also present – and also had no sleep. Continue reading...

Politics

34 h. ago Michelle de Kretser wins Stella prize for book that ‘expands our notions of what a novel can be’

The two-time Miles Franklin winner adds the $60,000 prize for women and nonbinary writers to her accolades, for a novel that troubles the line between fiction and memoirGet our weekend culture and lifestyle email“I wouldn’t say I set out to break forms, as to invent new ones,” Michelle de Kretser says of her novel Theory and Practice, winner of the $60,000 Stella prize for women and non-binary writers. “I wanted to write a novel where the reader thinks it isn’t a novel because I’m using nonfictional devices and forms.”Tricksy and sly, Theory and Practice – the Australian author’s eighth novel – troubles the line between fiction and memoir. It opens with several pages of another ostensibly unrelated novel that is abandoned in its early stages; the reader simply turns a page and is confronted with the line: “At that point, the novel I was writing stalled.” What comes after seems suspiciously like memoir – particularly to anyone vaguely familiar with de Kretser’s biography – following ...

Culture

3 d. ago International Booker Prize: The winner that will be showcased at 2025 Edinburgh International Book Festival

The author and translator of the winning book will appear at the Edinburgh International Book Festival

Culture

3 d. ago International Booker Prize 2025: Banu Mushtaq wins for book ‘challenging Western stereotypes about Muslim life’

The 12 short stories, translated by Deepa Bhasthi, follow the lives of ordinary women living in southern India

Politics

5 d. ago 2 books celebrating New York City culture and community win the Gotham Prize

This year’s winners of the Gotham Book Prize celebrate New York City as experienced on foot, bus and train

Culture

1 week ago Margaret Atwood says she cannot remember another time ‘when words themselves have felt under such threat’

The Handmaid’s Tale author spoke out as she accepted the freedom to publish prize at the British Book awardsMargaret Atwood has said she cannot remember another point in her lifetime “when words themselves have felt under such threat”.“Words are our earliest human technology, like water they appear insubstantial, but like water they can generate tremendous power” the 85-year-old novelist said in her acceptance speech for the freedom to publish prize at the British Book awards. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Polly Noakes announced as winner of Oscar's Book Prize for 'touching' story of friendship

Just The Two Of Us was chosen ahead of five other titles

Politics

3 w. ago New book prize to award aspiring writer £75,000 for first three pages of novel

The Next Big Story competition, run by writing school The Novelry, is encouraging entries from would-be authors ‘historically overlooked by the publishing industry’ A new competition is offering £75,000 to an aspiring writer based on just three pages of their novel.Actor Emma Roberts, Bridgerton author Julia Quinn and Booker-winning Life of Pi author Yann Martel are among the judges for The Next Big Story competition, run by online fiction writing school The Novelry. Continue reading...

Economics

4 w. ago Han Kang Nobel prize lecture book sells 10,000 copies in first day online in South Korea

Korean retailers report strong sales for Light and Thread, featuring speeches, essays and poems by novelistA book featuring Han Kang’s Nobel prize lecture sold 10,000 copies in its first day on sale online.Light and Thread, which takes its title from Han’s December lecture, is her first book to be published in South Korea since she was announced as the winner of the Nobel prize in literature last October. Continue reading...

Politics