About this Event

Language as self-portrait: on Writing and Translating with Deepa Bhasthi

Offscript is thrilled to host Deepa Bhasthi at the Barefoot Cafe for an open conversation on language and the journey of stories across worlds!

Join us for an evening of captivating exchange with the writer, cultural critic, journalist, and 2025 International Booker Prize–winning translator of "Heart Lamp: Selected Stories". From her acclaimed translations of Kota Shivarama Karanth and Kodagina Gouramma to her children’s book "Champi and the Fig Tree", Bhasthi illuminates how stories carry culture, memory, and identity.

The session will feature an exclusive excerpt reading followed by a book signing.

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER

How does language bear witness to cultural identity when carrying stories across linguistic worlds?

Deepa Bhasthi, International Booker Prize 2025 winner for her translation of Banu Mushtaq’s “Heart Lamp: Selected Stories”, is a writer and translator working between Kannada and English. Her essays, cultural criticism, columns, journalism, and translations bring regional literatures into a wider global conversation. She is the first Indian translator and the first translator of colour to be awarded the International Booker Prize.

She is also the author of the children’s book “Champi and the Fig Tree” and has translated major Kannada writers, including Kota Shivarama Karanth and Kodagina Gouramma. Her translation, alongside her essay “Against Italics”, reflects her commitment to preserving linguistic integrity and challenging hierarchies within language. It is an ode to the sisterhood that binds women, to inherited survival, and to their collective refusal to be controlled or tamed.

In this session, “Language as Self-Portrait: On Writing and Translating,” she will explore how language carries culture, memory, and identity, and the intimate work of moving stories across linguistic and cultural worlds.