Penguin Random House | New York, 08/23/2022

#StandWithSalman Elicits Huge Response

Last Friday, a show of solidarity for the author Salman Rushdie took place in New York. The event was organized by Penguin Random House, the authors’ association PEN America, and the New York Public Library. Well-known authors read from Rushdie’s works on the steps of the library. The author had been seriously injured in a stabbing attack on August 12.

#StandWithSalman is the hashtag Penguin Random House, the authors’ association PEN America, and the New York Public Library used to call for a show of solidarity for Salman Rushdie last Friday. Many authors followed the call and came to read from Rushdie’s works on the steps of the New York Public Library on a sunny late-summer morning. The famous author, whose works are published by Penguin Random House, had been seriously injured in a knife attack during a reading in New York State on August 12. Friends of Rushdie and supporters of free speech also responded to the call, holding up signs and books while authors read from Rushdie’s body of work and shared personal memories of the author.

Suzanne Nossel, author and CEO of PEN America, opened the event and spoke of “the never-ending war on words”. Author Jeffrey Eugenides remembered being a young writer in London and looking Rushdie up in a phone book to pay him a friendly visit. “That was the world we used to live in,” Eugenides reminisced. Author Hari Kunzru, read from the controversial and acclaimed The Satanic Verses, while author A.M. Homes read from Rushdie’s piece “On Censorship!” The piece, which ends with the declaration “Art is not entertainment. At its very best, it’s a revolution” was met with resounding applause.

Other authors who read from Rushdie’s writings included Paul Auster, Reginald Dwayne Betts, Tina Brown, Francesco Clemente, Kiran Desai, Andrea Elliott, Jeffrey Eugenides, Amanda Foreman, Roya Hakakian, A.M. Homes, Siri Hustvedt, Hari Kunzru, Aasif Mandvi, Colum McCann, Brent Reidy, Andrew Solomon, and Gay Talese. A livestream allowed supporters of Salman Rushdie to tune in globally and @PENamerica encouraged readers to use #StandWithSalman to post videos of themselves reading their favorite passages from Rushdie’s work. So far, the hashtag is in use by bookstores, passionate readers and authors such as Bernard-Henri Lévy and Gillian Tett.

Salman Rushdie has been persecuted by religious fanatics for decades. Following the publication of his novel “The Satanic Verses” in 1988, he was sentenced to death in absentia in Iran for blasphemy. Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran’s revolutionary leader at the time, accused Rushdie of insulting Islam, the Prophet, and the Koran in his novel, and called on believers worldwide to kill the author. The famous book features a character who resembles the Prophet Mohammed. Rushdie has been forced to live underground for years as a result. Iranian media have responded to the stabbing with praise and malicious gloating.