About the IAPP

Sir Salman Rushdie is one of the most celebrated authors of our time—of any time. A brilliant provocateur, he has penned multiple classic novels and memoirs, influenced a generation of writers, and received a Queen’s Knighthood for his “services to literature.” He stands as both a pop culture icon and one of the most thought-provoking proponents for free speech today.

Rushdie’s novels, greeted always with anticipation and acclaim, include “The Satanic Verses,” “The Moor’s Last Sigh,” “The Ground Beneath Her Feet,” and “The Enchantress of Florence.”

His most recent book, “The Eleventh Hour,” is a collection of stories on life, death, and what comes into focus at the proverbial eleventh hour of life. In a starred review, Booklist praises it as “enthralling, sagacious, and resounding,” while Kirkus, in a starred review, calls it “a brilliant series of intimations of mortality.”

His previous book, “Knife,” is a number-one international bestseller that was named to the New York Times 100 Notable Books of the Year and became a finalist for the National Book Award. It is a deeply personal account of surviving and healing after an attempt on his life. It has been lauded across the media. The Guardian calls it “a courageous defense of free speech,” while The New York Times hails it as “a visceral, intimate book.”

His latest New York Times bestselling novel, “Victory City,” tells the epic tale of a woman who breathes a fantastical empire into existence only to be consumed by it. It was named a best book of the year by The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, TIME, NPR, The Washington Post, and more. His previous work, “Languages of Truth,” is a collection of non-fiction essays from 2003-2020, which illuminate truths about our society and culture through his gorgeous and often searing prose.

For his masterwork of magic realism, “Midnight’s Children,” he won the prestigious Booker Prize, and later, the Best of the Booker. The novel has since been adapted to film by the Academy Award-nominated director Deepa Mehta and premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. As well, a new adaptation of “Midnight’s Children” is in development at Netflix, with showrunner Vishal Bhardwaj, whose work Rushdie calls “visually astonishing”.

Rushdie is also the author of the bestselling memoir “Joseph Anton.” His “Luka” and the “Fire of Life” is a children’s novel and a companion to “Haroun” and the “Sea of Stories.” His recent novel “Two Years Eight Months” and “Twenty-Eight Nights” was a New York Times bestseller, as was “The Golden House.”

An eclectic writer and noted public intellectual, Rushdie has won many of the world’s top literary prizes, published a heralded collection of essays, “Step Across the Line,” and served for two years as president of The PEN American Center, the world’s oldest human rights organization.