Salman Rushdie news stories on Newser

Salman Rushdie Proposes, Gets Turned Down

Evann Gastaldo — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 10:28:20 CST

Today, a lesson in why it's not a good idea to propose to someone two days after she splits up with someone else: That's how long Salman Rushdie waited after Michelle Barish broke up with New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch, and it did not go well for the novelist....

Rushdie Quits Festival Over Assassination Fears

Matt Cantor — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 09:52:22 CST

Salman Rushdie has dropped out of India's top literary festival after hearing that assassins may have been planning to attend—and kill him. Powerful clerics had protested the author's attendance at the Jaipur festival, which opened today and was to feature Rushdie as a speaker. But "intelligence sources in Maharashtra...

Salman Rushdie Fights 'Moronic' Facebook

Mary Papenfuss — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:20:00 CST

Writer Salman Rushdie was furious at "moronic" Facebook yesterday after the network took down his profile because operators thought it was fake. To start it up again, he was ordered to send in a copy of his passport—then told to use the name Ahmed because that's what appears on...

Salman Rushdie: Free China's Artists

Kevin Spak — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 13:44:52 CDT

Securing the release of Ai Weiwei , and the other artists China has arrested and silenced, “is a matter of urgency and the governments of the free world have a clear duty in this matter,” argues Salman Rushdie in an op-ed in today’s New York Times . The charges Ai has supposedly...

Why Writing About Sex Is So Hard

Jen Paton — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:46:32 CST

Our most august contemporary writers fumble virginally when it comes to writing about sex, and the BBC can't help but wonder why. After all, there have been plenty of renowned writers in the running for Literary Review 's annual award for the best bad sex writing: Nominee Philip Roth penned...

Celebs' Fave Smartphone Apps

Evann Gastaldo — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:58:34 CDT

Got a smartphone, but just not sure where to start with the apps? New York magazine has the faves of some famous New Yorkers: Jimmy Fallon, Bionic Eye for iPhone: “Basically, you aim your camera down the street and it will show you floating graphics of where, say, the nearest...

Most Hypocritical Book Bannings

Neal Colgrass — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 11:26:25 CDT

Banning a book is a move laden with ironies that can make the banner seem dull-witted in the long run. For National Banned Books Week, 11Points.com lists "the most hypocritical, ignorant, and, based on the content of the books, ironic" bans: Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury: The sci-fi classic is...

Ian McEwan: I Sheltered Rushdie After 1989 Fatwa

Jason Farago — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 07:55:53 CST

Twenty years after the Iranian leadership declared a death sentence on Salman Rushdie, fellow novelist Ian McEwan reveals that he sheltered the writer in a house in the English countryside. In a long profile of McEwan in the New Yorker , the novelist describes how the pair listened to news of...

Fatwa Against Rushdie Set Off Self-Censorship

Kevin Spak — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:27:37 CST

When Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against Salman Rushdie, Christopher Hitchens knew what it meant: "This was not just a warning of what was to come,” he writes in Vanity Fair, “it was the warning.” A global culture war, between Muslim fundamentalists and everyone else, had begun. Now Khomeini is...