FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 18, 2004

CONTACT:
Lisa Lacher, (515) 271-3119, lisa.lacher@drake.edu

DRAKE INVITES PUBLIC TO 'STEP ACROSS THE LINE' WITH RENOWNED AUTHOR SALMAN RUSHDIE

World-renowned author Salman Rushdie will give the Martin Bucksbaum Distinguished Lecture at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 30, in the Drake University Knapp Center, 2601 Forest Ave. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is titled "Step Across This Line: An Evening with Salman Rushdie." Following the lecture, all guests are invited to a reception and book signing.

Rushdie is noted for using his upbringing in India, Pakistan and the United Kingdom, as well as his personal history, to make bold statements about life on Earth. Rushdie attended King's College, Cambridge, where he experienced minor persecution and racist attacks. However, upon graduation in 1968, Rushdie remained in Britain, working as an actor and advertising copywriter before becoming a full-time writer.

He perhaps is best known for his 1989 book "The Satanic Verses," which caused an international controversy and prompted Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa calling for his death. The government of Iran lifted the fatwa in 1998, but it was while living under constant threat of violence that Rushdie produced some of his most sincere and beautiful work. In an interview, Rushdie described his experience living with the fatwa as a "bad Salman Rushdie novel."

Rushdie's latest book is "Step Across This Line: Collected Non-fiction, 1992-2002." Among other topics, the essays, speeches and opinion pieces assembled in this book chronicle Rushdie's views on subjects ranging from soccer to "The Wizard of Oz" to Sept. 11, 2001.

Rushdie became the first-ever honorary professor in the humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1993. He also was named Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Distinguished Fellow in Literature at the University of East Anglia. He was awarded the Austrian State Prize for European Literature in 1993 and the European Union Aristeion Prize in 1996, and has received eight honorary doctorates.

The Martin Bucksbaum Distinguished Lecture Series is made possible by a gift from Melva and the late Martin Bucksbaum, former chairman and president of General Growth Corp. and longtime member of Drake's governing board.

For more information about the Bucksbaum Lecture Series, call Susan Breakenridge at (515) 271-3994 or send an e-mail message to susan.breakenridge@drake.edu.