Rushdie to deliver 2014 MWF keynote

24 June 2014 Books+Publishing

The Melbourne Writers Festival (MWF) has announced that Salman Rushdie will deliver a keynote address at this year’s festival.

Rushdie, who will appear at the festival on Thursday 28 August, will speak about ‘freedom to write’. ‘This could not be more timely given the various debates about freedom of speech taking place here in Australia and around the world,’ said festival director Lisa Dempster.

Rushdie will also appear at the Sydney Opera House’s annual Festival of Dangerous Ideas, along with a number of other MWF guests: UN Goodwill Ambassador Lydia Cacho; urban explorer Bradley Garrett; Masha Gessen, author of The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin; Elizabeth Kolbert, whose series The Climate of Man won the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s magazine writing award; New Yorker television critic Emily Nussbaum; Tampa author Alissa Nutting; and Reuters and Economist political correspondent Elizabeth Pisani.

MWF will also host astronaut and author Chris Hadfield, famous for his rendition of David Bowie’s Space Oddity from the International Space Station.

Tickets to Rushdie’s address can be purchased from today, Tuesday 24 June. The full MWF program will be available from Friday 18 July.

Category: Local news