Salman Rushdie is the author of such international bestsellers as Midnight's Children and The Satanic Verses. The latter was deemed sacrilegious by Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini, who issued a fatwa against him in 1989. Despite this proclamation, and the international controversy that followed, Rushdie went on to produce some of his most compelling work, including The Moor's Last Sigh, and The Ground Beneath Her Feet while living under the constant threat of death. His most recent novel, Shalimar the Clown, was an international bestseller and a nominee for both the Man Booker Prize and the Commonwealth Writer's Prize.

Rushdie is also a prolific essayist. Step Across This Line: Collected Non-Fiction, 1992-2002, contains many of his most provocative articles, some of which explore his own reaction to the fatwa, as well as reactions of the media and various governments. In most of his works, he draws on his unique upbringing and personal history to make bold and original statements about modern life.

For two years, starting in 2004, Rushdie served as president of The PEN American Center, the largest branch of PEN International, the world's oldest human rights organization. As president, he worked to dispel national, ethnic, and racial hatreds; and to advance literature, defend free expression and foster international literary fellowship. He is the winner of numerous literary prizes and awards, including the prestigious Man Booker Prize, and the "Booker of Bookers" Award, which was awarded to the best Booker-winning novel of the prize's first 25 years. Rushdie is also a recipient of the Whitbread Prize for Best Novel, the French Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger, and other top international honors from Budapest, Italy and Austria. In 2007 Rushdie was officially knighted by the Queen, for services to literature. Rushdie's latest novel, The Enchantress of Florence, will be released in June 2008.

Salman Rushdie's presentations take audiences on a provocative journey into the world of contemporary literature, politics, culture and philosophy. Like his best-selling novels and widely acclaimed essays, Rushdie's live presentations offer a challenging and enlightening look at modern life. Displaying the same wit and charm in person as he does in his writing, Rushdie explores many of the themes that he has covered so provocatively in his books: freedom of expression, religion and its relationship to popular culture and modern society, current events at home and abroad, and the role of the artist in society. Interspersed with selections from his published work, his live presentations are best described as a tour de force of ideas and intellectual pyrotechnics on a grand scale.

Rushdie is careful to customize and target his remarks for the interests of the audience. For those groups that are more interested in his life as a writer he will share selections from his long and distinguished writing career, discussing his approach to writing and key developments in his prose style and artistic sensibility. For those groups that are more interested in contemporary politics, society, and popular culture, Rushdie discusses broader social and political themes, relating these back to his own experiences as a media celebrity, target of religious fanaticism, and pop icon.

Salman Rushdie has experienced the threat of modern terrorism first hand. For years he lived under the constant threat of death from the very kind of religious extremism that today is driving much of the violence and terror we see in the headlines daily. Rushdie's experience and understanding allows him to describe vividly the way the world has changed. Whereas in the past, global tensions were divided along country lines and were 'visible', now our safety concerns rest on the 'invisible' threat of terrorism, and, as a result, our protagonists aren't accountable to the same sort of public reckoning that they used to be.

An astute and informed observer of events in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and other hotspots, Rushdie argues that America and her allies must do a better job of evaluating the gains being made by the current war on terror, versus its costs—in lives, international cooperation, and the goodwill of the very people we are trying to liberate. The question for all of us is how we can create a safe world that isn't in some way also an authoritarian world. His answer is clear: we must not allow ourselves to be frightened out of our own morality. Salman Rushdie provides an enlightening and informed look at a citizen's duty in today's world.

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