A former PEN America president, Rushdie is a well-known novelist who has written over 20 books. In 1989, he was the target of a fatwa issued by the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini after he wrote The Satanic Verses, and spent a decade in hiding. On August 12, 2022, Rushdie was attacked onstage in upstate New York by an assailant who stabbed him a dozen times as he prepared to give a public talk.
