Salman Rushdie to teach in US University

Washington, Oct 9 (UNI) Salman Rushdie, one of the world's most celebrated contemporary authors, will join the faculty of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia state, as Distinguished Writer in Residence and place his archive at Emory's Woodruff Library.

"Salman Rushdie is not only one of the foremost writers of our generation, he is also a courageous champion of human rights and freedom," said Emory President James Wagner, in a press statement here yesterday.

This is Mr Rushdie's first extended relationship with a university. His position as Distinguished Writer in Residence is a five-year appointment in the English Department, beginning in the spring of 2007. During each of these five years, he will teach at least four weeks, lead a graduate seminar, participate in undergraduate classes, advise students, engage in symposia and deliver a public lecture.

Rushdie's literature spans India, Europe, North and South America. He is often compared to Jorge Louis Borges, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Vladimir Nabokov. His novel, "Midnight's Children" (1980), won the Booker Prize, Britain's most prestigious literary award, and was selected in 1993 as the best novel in 25 years of the Booker Prize. Subsequent novels, including "The Satanic Verses" (1988), "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" (1999) and most recently, "Shalimar the Clown" (2005), involve a panoramic scope weaving mythology, pop culture, politics and religions from around the world to epic effect.

The statement also praised Rushdie as also "one of the most important voices of our time for human rights." Though for nearly 10 years, following publication of "The Satanic Verses," he was in the midst of terrorist threats from Islamists who found the novel blasphemous, Rushdie continued to champion oppressed artists and people around the world. "How we fight it is going to be the greatest civilisational test of our time," Rushdie said about terrorism. Principles of human rights and religious and artistic freedom, he has emphasised, are crucial in this world struggle.

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