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01.31.08

Elaine Justice: 404-727-0643, elaine.justice@emory.edu

RUSHDIE TO DELIVER PUBLIC LECTURE AT EMORY

Salman Rushdie, Distinguished Writer in Residence at Emory University, will deliver a public lecture titled "Autobiography and the Novel" at 5 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 10 in Glenn Memorial Auditorium, 1652 N. Decatur Rd. on Emory's main campus.
Tickets, which are $10 ($5 with Emory ID), are available online at http://www.emory.edu/events.

"The lecture will be an examination of how the lives of writers intertwine with their work, and in what ways, if at all, the life can be said to be the best explanation of that work," said Rushdie of the presentation.
"People nowadays assume that all fiction is somehow autobiographically inspired," he said. "And of course life and experience have always contributed to art. But the fictionality of fiction is what makes it worthwhile."

Rushdie's position as Distinguished Writer in Residence is a five-year appointment, and began in the spring of 2007. During each of the five years, he presents a public lecture, teaches for at least four weeks, leads a graduate seminar, participates in undergraduate classes, advises students and engages in symposia with the academic community.
In 2006, Rushdie placed his archive at Emory's Robert W. Woodruff Library. Included in the archive are Rushdie's private journals detailing life under the fatwa, as well as personal correspondence, notebooks, photographs and manuscripts of all of his writings, including two early unpublished novels.

Rushdie is one of the world's best-known writers of fiction and essays and a leading champion for human rights. His novel, "Midnight's Children" (1980), won Britain's most prestigious literary award, the Booker Prize, 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 lecture is presented by Emory's Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library, Emory College and the Emory Creativity and the Arts Initiative.
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Emory University (http://www.emory.edu) is one of the nation's leading private research universities and a member of the Association of American Universities. Known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate college of arts and sciences, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities, Emory is ranked as one of the country's top 20 national universities by U.S. News & World Report. In addition to its nine schools, the university encompasses The Carter Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, the state's largest and most comprehensive health care system.
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