American Humanist Association Announces 2019 Humanist of the Year
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Sarah Henry, (202) 238-9088, shenry@americanhumanist.org
(Washington, D.C., April 3, 2019) – The American Humanist Association (AHA) is proud to announce author and activist Salman Rushdie as the 2019 Humanist of the Year. AHA Executive Director Roy Speckhardt said, “Rushdie’s keen insights significantly further humanist thought and impact the broader culture. Humanists and freethinkers will be gathering this June at multiple universities and watching the online broadcast in order to see him accept the AHA’s highest award during our 78th Annual Conference.”
Salman Rushdie is the author of 13 novels, including Midnight’s Children, winner of the 1981 Booker Prize and Best of the Booker in 2008 and, most recently, Golden House. His fourth novel, The Satanic Verses, sparked controversy and protests from Muslim communities in several countries, including a fatwā calling for Rushdie’s assassination issued by the Supreme Leader of Iran.
Rushdie is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Fellow of the British Royal Society of Literature, a former president of American PEN, and for ten years served as the Chairman of the PEN World Voices International Literary Festival. He is currently a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University.
Rushdie has received the Freedom of the City in Mexico City, Strasbourg, and El Paso, and the Edgerton Prize of the American Civil Liberties Union. His books have been translated into more than 40 languages.
The American Humanist Association’s 78th Annual Conference will take place on June 7-9, 2019, in a first-of-its-kind distributed venue. Streamed live from five select university locations across the country, attendees can register for the conference livestream or attendance at one location. Additional information about the conference can be found here.
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The American Humanist Association (AHA) works to protect the rights of humanists, atheists, and other nontheistic Americans. The AHA advances the ethical and life-affirming worldview of humanism, which—without beliefs in gods or other supernatural forces—encourages individuals to live informed and meaningful lives that aspire to the greater good of humanity.