By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke 9/21/12 8:20am

Notes From The Underground

Photo credit: PowerHouse Arena Tumblr

Salman Rushdie Relives His Time in Hiding

The lights dimmed and mood music began to play as Salman Rushdie walked to the stage at PowerHouse Arena in Dumbo the other night as part of a week of events to launch his new memoir, Joseph Anton.

The title of the book is the pseudonym that Mr. Rushdie used while he was in hiding after Iran’s leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa calling for the author’s death following the publication of The Satanic Verses in 1989. The book, which is written in the third person, focuses mostly on the period when Mr. Rushdie was in hiding before the fatwa was lifted in 2002.

Mr. Rushdie stood at the microphone in a slightly baggy, somewhat wrinkled gray suit and a blue shirt unbuttoned at the neck. Read More

By Kim Velsey 4/16/12 8:00am

Literary Stuff

The author and bird lover (Quinn deEskimo, flickr)

Jonathan Franzen’s Reluctant Reading

The first thing the Observer noticed about Jonathan Franzen was that he was wearing a name tag. It said “Jonathan Franzen.”

We asked him if he usually wore name tags to his readings.

“Everyone is wearing one but you,” Mr. Franzen pointed out. This was true. In what appeared to be an act of almost defiant social leveling, the organizers of last Thursday’s Semiperm House’s fifth anniversary celebration/Jonathan Franzen reading had given everyone a name tag. Read More