Berkley Center

Razia Iqbal is an anchor of Newshour on the BBC World Service, the current affairs program with 12.5 million listeners in the U.S. and millions more elsewhere. For the last three decades she has reported from around the world, including as a special correspondent for BBC TV. Iqbal has presented the in-depth interview series Witness History, Talking Books and Dream Builders as well as documentaries for both radio and TV. She is a frequent moderator at political and literary events.

Salman Rushdie is an award-winning novelist and the author of 22 books. He is the author of the Booker Prize winner Midnight’s Children (1981), as well as The Satanic Verses (1988), The Moor’s Last Sigh (1995), and Quichotte (2019) , all of which have been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. A national best seller, his most recent book, The Eleventh Hour (2025), explores themes of legacy, justice, and morality. His most-recent memoir, Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder (2024), was a finalist for the 2024 National Book Award for Nonfiction. His many awards include the Whitbread Prize for Best Novel, which he won twice; the PEN/Allen Foundation Literary Service Award; the National Arts Award; the French Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger; the European Union’s Aristeion Prize for Literature; the Budapest Grand Prize for Literature; and the Italian Premio Grinzane Cavour. In 2007, he was awarded a Knighthood for services to literature and was made a Companion of Honour in 2022. He is a former president of PEN America and the recipient of the PEN Centenary Courage Award. His books have been translated into over forty languages.