In response to the attack on Salman Rushdie in New York, the international literature festival berlin is calling for a »Worldwide Reading« of selected works by the author.
The life-threatening attack on Salman Rushdie has deeply shaken the literary world, politics and people everywhere. The reading is a sign for the freedom of literature and for solidarity with the author. Individuals as well as schools, universities, cultural institutions and media institutions are called upon to participate on September 29.
Among the first signatories of the call are: Adonis [Syrien Frankreich], Breyten Breytenbach [Südafrika], Amir Hassan Cheheltan [Iran], Robert Hass [USA], Elfriede Jelinek [Österreich], Sergei Lebjedev [Russland Deutschland], Bernard-Henri Levy [Frankreich], Yang Lian [China Großbritannien], Alberto Ruy Sánchez [Mexiko], Peter Schneider [Deutschland], Wole Soyinka [Nigeria] and Janne Teller [Dänemark].
»It is absolutely urgent to stand up firmly and defend law and human dignity. By reading Salman Rushdie’s novels and essays, freedom-loving people all over the world can send a signal that they will not be intimidated by threats of violence and will not bow to any attempt to suppress or annihilate thoughts expressed in speech, writing and images.« – taken from the call for the »Worldwide Reading«
All further information can be found at the call for »Worldwide Reading«.
About Salman Rushdie
Salman Rushdies is considered one of the most eminent voices in international literature. His oeuvre includes story collections, non-fiction books, and no fewer than thirteen novels: among them »Midnight’s Children« (which won the Booker Prize in 1981) and »The Satanic Verses«. On the basis of the book, the Indian-born, British writer was sentenced to death by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989 as part of a fatwa. Formally, the death sentence was never lifted. Rushdie has received, among many other honors, the Whitbread Prize for Best Novel, the Writers’ Guild Award, the James Tait Black Prize, and the European Union Aristeion Prize for Literature.