The Premier Lecture

Sir Salman Rushdie

Public Events, Private Lives:
Literature and Politics in the Modern World

October 5, 2011 | 7PM | Wright Auditorium

Sir Salman Rushdie, a fervent champion of freedom of expression, will deliver the 2011-2012 Voyages of Discovery Lecture Series’ Premier Lecture, "Public Events, Private Lives: Literature and Politics in the Modern World."Rushdie has written award-winning novels, including Midnight's Children (which received the Booker Prize in 1981, and the "Booker of Bookers" Prize in 1993) and The Satanic Verses (1988). This last work so incensed the Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini (1902-1989) that he issued a fatwā calling for Rushdie’s death. As a result, Rushdie spent the next decade in hiding. Since the fatwa was lifted, Rushdie has emerged as one of the world's most engaged and outspoken intellectuals. In addition to myriad literary awards, Rushdie has received eight honorary doctorates.