Born in India and educated in England, author Sir Salman Rushdie has long captured the attention of the world for his outspoken views.
In August 2026, he will be touring to Melbourne and Sydney to deliver ‘in conversations’, starting at Melbourne Town Hall on Monday 17 August 2026, hosted by the Wheeler Centre, before heading to Sydney for the Festival of Dangerous Ideas.
Erin Vincent, Wheeler Centre CEO, says of the opportunity to hear Rushdie: ‘With freedom of speech under threat in democracies around the world, this will be a conversation of the moment and The Wheeler Centre is honoured to host him for this special occasion.’
It is Rushdie’s first visit to Australia in more than a decade, and since an attempt on his life in 2022.
What will Salman Rushdie speak about?
In what promises to be one of the most anticipated literary events of 2026, Rushdie will appear in conversation with author and columnist Sisonke Msimang.
It will be ‘a rare opportunity to hear directly from a writer whose work and personal journey have come to symbolise both the freedom and the fragility of artistic expression,’ Vincent said.
The conversation will cover a lot of terrain, including the enduring role of the writer in a divided world and the redemptive power of art in times of adversity.
Rushdie will reflect upon his career, and the choices he has made not only in shaping it, but how those decisions have impacted his life – and a generation of writers and thinkers. He is described as ‘one of the defining voices of the 20th and 21st centuries’, by the Wheeler Centre.
Rushdie will speak on the release of a new collection of short stories, The Eleventh Hour, published in November 2025, which will be a poignant meditation on life, death and the moments that define us.
More on Salman Rushdie
Rushdie won the Booker Prize with Midnight’s Children (1981) throwing him into the international spotlight.
Rushdie’s works include the controversial The Satanic Verses, The Moor’s Last Sigh, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Shalimar the Clown, Quichotte, and his memoir spanning five decades, Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder.
As an author and advocate, Rushdie is know for his wit, political daring, and poetic imagination.
