Renowned author and human rights advocate Salman Rushdie will deliver the Westport Library’s annual Malloy Lecture in the Arts on Thursday, Oct. 22, at 7:30 p.m. in the Staples High School auditorium, it was announced today.
Salman Rushdie: will speak Oct. 22. Contributed photo
Widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of our time, Rushdie is the author of twelve novels including “Midnight’s Children” (for which he won the Booker Prize and the Best of the Booker), “The Satanic Verses,” “The Moor’s Last Sigh,” and “The Ground Beneath Her Feet,” which was the inspiration for a song produced by U2 with lyrics by Rushdie.
He has also published four works of nonfiction, including his acclaimed memoir J”oseph Anton.” The memoir’s title was taken from the code name he used after Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran charged him with blasphemy and issued a fatwa calling for his assassination following the publication of “The Satanic Verses.”
Rushdie has co-edited two anthologies, “Mirrorwork”, a collection of contemporary Indian writing, “Best American Short Stories 2008.” and a collection of short stories, “East and West.”
His 12th novel, “Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights,” will be published next month and is his first adult novel in seven years.
A Fellow of the British Royal Society of Literature, Rushdie has received, among other honors, the Whitbread Prize for Best Novel (twice), the Writers’ Guild Award, the James Tait Black Prize, the European Union’s Aristeion Prize for Literature, and Author of the Year prizes in both Britain and Germany.
He has also been awarded the French Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger, the Budapest Grand Prize for Literature, the Premio Grinzane Cavour in Italy, the Crossword Book Award in India, the Austrian State Prize for European Literature, and the London International Writers’ Award.
Other honors include the James Joyce Award of University College Dublin.
He holds honorary doctorates and fellowships at six European and six American universities, is an honorary professor in the Humanities at MIT and Distinguished Writer in Residence at Emory University.
He has received the Freedom of the City in Mexico City, Strasbourg and El Paso, and the Edgerton Prize of the American Civil Liberties Union. He holds the rank of Commander in the Order of Arts and Letters—France’s highest artistic honor.
Rushdie has served as president of PEN American Center, and continues to work as president of the PEN World Voices International Literary Festival, which he helped to create.
In June 2007, he received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, was named a Library Lion of the New York Public Library and is a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University.
His books have been translated into more than 40 languages. A film of “Midnight’s Children,” directed by Deepa Mehta, was released in 2012. In 2004, an opera based on his children’s book “Haroun and the Sea of Stories” was premiered by the New York City Opera at Lincoln Center.
The Malloy Lecture in the Arts is made possible by a generous contribution from late Westport artist Susan Malloy. Admission to the program is free. Tickets, however, are required.
Register online at westportlibrary.org. Copies of Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights will be available for pre-purchase at a special price with registration. Books may be autographed after the program.
