Salman Rushdie has been honoured with the PEN Centenary Courage Award as the Mumbai-born writer made his first in-person public appearance since being stabbed and severely wounded in a knife attack at a literary event here last year.
Rushdie, 75, attended the 2023 Literary Gala in New York City at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan on Thursday night. PEN America honoured its former president Rushdie, who accepted the award in person.
“Well, hi everybody. It’s nice to be back—as opposed to not being back, which was also an option. I’m pretty glad the dice rolled this way,” said Rushdie, who was greeted by the audience with whoops and a standing ovation. “I have a long association with PEN America. I’m just happy to be back amongst an evening of writers and book people,” he said. Rushdie was stabbed by a 24-year-old New Jersey resident identified as Hadi Matar, a US national of Lebanese origin, on stage in August last year while he was being introduced at a literary event at Chautauqua Institution in Western New York. The brutal attack left the Booker Prize-winning author, born to a Kashmiri family in Mumbai, debilitated and without vision in one eye. Speaking to 700 guests at the gala – a black-tie annual event that gathers acclaimed writers, human rights defenders, and cultural luminaries – Rushdie issued a call to action.“Terrorism must not terrorise us. Violence must not deter us. The struggle goes on,” he said. It was an emotional return to the stage for Rushdie, who for decades has been a tireless defender of persecuted writers and the freedom to write while himself living under a death threat for his writing, PEN America said in a statement.
