March 5, 2015

New Distinguished Writer in Residence: Salman Rushdie

Salman Rushdie

The journalism faculty is enthusiastic about the new appointment of Salman Rushdie as a distinguished writer in residence. Here is the announcement by Institute Director Perri Klass.

I am delighted to announce that the renowned author, Salman Rushdie, will be joining our NYU Journalism faculty as a Distinguished Writer in Residence in the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of the Faculty of Arts and Science in September, 2015. Over the next five years, Mr. Rushdie will be fully engaged in our community, teaching courses in the Institute, providing public readings, and advising graduate students.

A Fellow of the British Royal Society of Literature and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Salman 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, Author of the Year Prizes in both Britain and Germany, 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, the London International Writers’ Award, the James Joyce award of University College Dublin, the St. Louis Literary Award, the Carl Sandburg Prize of the Chicago Public Library, and a U.S. National Arts Award. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997 for “services to literature.”

In addition to his many essays and four non-fiction books (essays, memoir, and reportage), Rushdie is the author of a book of stories and eleven novels, including Midnight’s Children, which was awarded the Booker Prize in 1981. He also holds honorary doctorates and fellowships at six European and six American universities, is an Honorary Professor in the Humanities at M.I.T, and University Distinguished Professor at Emory University.

As a brilliant writer and prominent public intellectual, Mr. Rushdie exemplifies the mission of the Journalism Institute – a center for research and teaching in the cultural hub and media capital that is New York City – and he will join our ranks of incredibly talented writers, reporters, producers, and critics, to engage and inform our local community in journalism and beyond.

I am confident that Mr. Rushdie will be an outstanding addition to the Journalism Institute, and I hope that you will join me in welcoming him to our community.

– Perri Klass, Director

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NYU Journalism Primary Sources: Suketu Mehta and Salman Rushdie discuss freedom of speech, the burning of books, and the proposed mosque in downtown Manhattan.

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