Salman Rushdie's First In-Person Appearance Since Stabbing Surprises at PEN America Gala.

Author Salman Rushdie made his first in-person public appearance since being stabbed and hospitalized nine months ago at the annual gala of PEN America, the literary and free expression organization for which he once served as president. Rushdie sustained multiple wounds, leaving him blind in his right eye and struggling to write. Rushdie was in hiding for years after Iran’s Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa in 1989 calling for his death because of the alleged blasphemy of the novel “The Satanic Verses,” but he had long moved about freely before the attack in August.