‘An act of courage’: Salman Rushdie to return to Australia for first time since US attack

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Acclaimed novelist Salman Rushdie will return to Australia for the first time since he survived an attempt on his life in 2022.

Rushdie, best known for award-winning novels including Midnight’s Children and The Satanic Verses, will appear in both Melbourne and Sydney next year, beginning at Melbourne Town Hall with The Wheeler Centre on August 17. He will then deliver the Opening Night John Caldon Provocation, The Price of Ideas, as part of Sydney’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas on August 21.

Salman Rushdie is set to present in Australia for the first time since his 2022 attack.

The author has faced several death threats since 1988 after releasing The Satanic Verses, which was considered blasphemous by Iran’s then-supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. But three years ago, the Booker Prize-winner was attacked by a 24-year-old man with a knife as he prepared to deliver a public lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in New York state.

During the 2022 attack, he was stabbed multiple times in the head, neck, torso and left hand, blinding his right eye and damaging his liver and intestines. He required emergency surgery and months of recovery, including more than three weeks at a New York City rehabilitation centre.

In 2024, he released his memoir Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder, which recounts the attack and his long, painful recovery. The attacker, Hadi Matar, was found guilty of attempted murder in February.

Rushdie last visited Australia more than a decade ago when he spoke about freedom of speech in literature at the Melbourne Writers Festival. He also headlined the Festival of Dangerous Ideas (FODI) in Sydney that same year.

Salman Rushdie’s 2024 memoir Knife recounts the 2022 attack and his long, painful recovery.

“The last time I came to Sydney, I spoke at FODI about the freedom to write – a freedom that is key to every open society,” Rushdie said in a statement released on Tuesday.

“This time, I return to speak about the price we pay for ideas. Because today, the simple act of expressing a thought – in a book, on a stage, online – is no longer just a matter of liberty. It is, too often, an act of courage. And in that courage, we find both the danger and the necessity of continuing to speak.”

In both appearances, the author will reflect on the attack on his life and share stories from his upcoming collection The Eleventh Hour, which will be released in November. In Melbourne, he will speak alongside author and columnist Sisonke Msimang (Always Another Country) to discuss the transformative power of literature.

Rushdie has written 22 books and has long been a fierce defender of freedom of expression. In 2007, he received a Queen’s knighthood for his services to literature, and he was named one of Time’s 100 most influential people of the year in 2023.

Salman Rushdie will speak at Melbourne Town Hall, presented by The Wheeler Centre, on August 17 (early bird tickets available from October 28). He will open the Festival of Dangerous Ideas in Sydney on August 21 (early bird tickets available from October 21).

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