Dayton Literary Peace Prize Confers Salman Rushdie With Lifetime Achievement Award

Photo: Dayton Literary Peace Prize

India-West News Desk

DAYTON, OH -Salman Rushdie has been honored with the Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award, the lifetime achievement prize of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, here. The award recognizes exceptional literary merit and a commitment to promoting peace through writing.

“I’m grateful for this opportunity to celebrate the beauty and urgent necessity of peace, and to remember that art is always in the service of that cause,” Rushdie said.

The prestigious recognition comes three years after Rushdie was brutally attacked and blinded in one eye while on a New York lecture stage in 2022. Despite the ordeal, the 78-year-old author has continued his prolific career. He published the acclaimed memoir “Knife” in 2024, which was a finalist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction, and his 23rd work, “The Eleventh Hour,” a collection of novellas and short stories, was released earlier this month.

The attack was carried out by Hadi Matar, then 24 and a US citizen, who traveled from New Jersey to Chautauqua, New York, to execute the decades-old edict for Rushdie’s death. Matar was subsequently sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Rushdie is renowned for his 1988 novel, “The Satanic Verses,” which contained a dream sequence involving the Prophet Muhammad that sparked allegations of blasphemy. This led to Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issuing a 1989 call for the writer’s death, forcing him into hiding for years.

The lifetime achievement award is named for the American diplomat, Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke, who was a key architect of the Accords.

Past recipients of the award include former US President Jimmy Carter, Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, feminist icon Gloria Steinem, and writers Margaret Atwood, John Irving, and Barbara Kingsolver. Other honorees this year include Kaveh Akbar for his novel “Martyr!” and Sunil Amrith for his historical work, “The Burning Earth.”