Deepa Bhasthi is a writer and International Booker Prize winning literary translator working in Kannada and English. She is the first Indian translator and the first translator of colour to be awarded the International Booker Prize. Her cultural criticism, essays, columns and journalism have been published extensively in Indian and international publications, anthologies and art book projects. She is the author of a children's book 'Champi and the Fig Tree' in Kannada and English. Her published translations from Kannada include works by Kota Shivarama Karanth, Kodagina Gouramma and Banu Mushtaq. She is a finalist for the 2026 Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize as part of the National Critics Circle Awards and the recipient of a EnglishPEN Award for the latter, a collection of short stories titled 'Heart Lamp: Selected Stories.' Deepa lives and works in Kodagu in southern India.