International Booker Prize winner Banu Mushtaq consciously uses simple language to reach a wider audience. She dictates poems and stories to her phone, often while traveling, due to her demanding career as a lawyer and activist. Her collection, 'Heart Lamp: Selected Stories,' translated by Deepa Bhasthi, won the 2025 International Booker Prize. Mushtaq's early involvement in the 1970s Kannada literature movement, Bandaya, influenced her to identify with marginalized communities and advocate for their voices.