Salman Rushdie attends NYC PEN Gala for first public performance since August 2022 knife attack
Salman Rushdie made an emotional and unexpected return to public life Thursday night, attending PEN America’s annual gala and delivering the event’s closing speech to a standing ovation.
The 75-year-old lost one eye and the use of one hand after being assaulted on stage at a literary event near Lake Erie in upstate New York in August.
Hadi Matar, a New Jersey Shia Muslim American sympathetic to extremist Iranian affairs, has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree attempted murder and assault.
Rushdie received a special award on Thursday, the PEN Centenary Courage Award — nine months after being repeatedly stabbed and hospitalized.
“It’s nice to be back — rather than not being back, which was also a possibility,” he said, to a standing ovation.
“I’m glad the dice rolled this way.”
Sir Salman Rushdie, 75, made a surprise appearance at the PEN gala in New York City on Thursday night and received a standing ovation
Rushdie used his speech to urge people not to give in to terror threats
Rushdie’s performance at the gala at the American Museum of Natural History was his first public event since the stabbing
Rushdie is asked about protests in Iran and says he supports the women who advocate for freedom
Thursday’s gala at the American Museum of Natural History was Rushdie’s first personal appearance at a public event since he was attacked.
Rushdie, whose presence was not announced in advance, spoke briefly, dedicating some of his remarks to those who came to his aid at the Chautauqua Institution, a non-profit education and retreat center.
He quoted a fellow attendee, Henry Reese, of the City of Asylum project in Pittsburgh, for addressing the attacker and thanked audience members who also intervened.
“I therefore accept this award on behalf of everyone who has come to my aid. I was the target that day, but they were the heroes.
“The courage was all theirs that day, and I thank them for saving my life,” he said.
“And I have one last thing to add.
“It is this: Terror must not terrorize us. Violence should not deter us. Let’s continue. La lutta continua. The battle continues.’
Rushdie is pictured with his fifth wife, poet Rachel Eliza Griffiths. The couple married in 2021
Rushdie is pictured with PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel
Attacks against Rushdie have been feared since the late 1980s and the publication of his novel “The Satanic Verses,” which Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini denounced as blasphemous because of passages referring to the Prophet Muhammad.
The ayatollah issued a decree calling for Rushdie’s death, forcing the author to go into hiding for many years – although he had been living and traveling freely for decades before the stabbing.
Since his attack, he has since given few interviews and otherwise communicated through his Twitter account and prepared comments.
Earlier this week, he delivered a video message to the British Book Awards, where he received a Freedom to Publish award.
Rushdie was clearly thrilled to attend the gala, but his voice sounded more fragile than ever and the right frame of his glasses was dark, blinding his attacker’s eye.
PEN Galas have long been a combination of literature, politics, activism and celebrity, with attendees ranging from Alec Baldwin to Senator Angus King of Maine.
Hadi Matar (right) has been charged with attempted murder for stabbing Salman Rushdie (left). Matar said he had only read two pages of Rushdie’s book: Rushdie dismissed him as ‘an idiot’
Indian-born British author, 75, was about to lecture at the Chautauqua Institution when he was stabbed about 12 times, including once in the neck
Rushdie was airlifted to hospital following the August 12 attack. He spent six weeks there before being fired
Other accolades on Thursday included “Saturday Night Live” producer Lorne Michaels and imprisoned Iranian journalist and activist Narges Mohammadi, who received the PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award.
“Dear writers, thinkers and sympathizers, I beg you to help the Iranian people free themselves from the clutches of the Islamic Republic, or morally speaking, please help end the suffering of the Iranian people,” Mohammadi wrote from prison in a letter. aloud during the ceremony.
“Let’s prove the magic of global unity against authorities mad at power and greed.”
Thursday night hosted “Saturday Night Live” head writer Colin Jost, who inspired nervous laughter with jokes about the risks of being in the same room as Rushdie, likening it to sharing a balcony area with Abraham Lincoln.
He also briefly referred to the Hollywood writers’ strike, which has taken “Saturday Night Live” off the air since early May, saying it was “disorienting” to spend the afternoon on a picket line and then show up “for the museum cocktail hour’. ‘
PEN events are familiar institutions for Rushdie, a former president of PEN, the literary rights organization for whom freedom of expression is a core mission.
He has attended many times in the past and is a co-founder of PEN’s World Voices Festival, an international gathering of author panels and interviews held around the time of the PEN gala.
Rushdie’s surprise appearance was the culmination of an eventful month for PEN, the literary and free speech organization that has been caught in the middle of several conflicts, voluntarily or not.
On Wednesday, PEN and Penguin Random House sued a Florida school district for removing books about race and LGBTQ+ identities.
Earlier this week, writer Masha Gessen announced she had resigned as vice president of the PEN board after a World Voices panel of Russian dissidents she was supposed to moderate was called off amid objections to their presence of Ukrainians in the city for a separate PEN event. .