Robert Caro, Salman Rushdie and Sandra Cisneros honored by Authors Guild
[April 08, 2025]
By HILLEL ITALIE
NEW YORK (AP) — Robert Caro, Salman Rushdie and Sandra Cisneros were
honored Monday night at an Authors Guild dinner gala that celebrated the
written word and its vital role in the preservation of democracy.
“The world we live in is a house on fire and people we love are
burning,” said Cisneros, the fiction writer, poet and pacifist who was
presented the Baldacci Award for Literary Activism. Caro, the Pulitzer
Prize-winning historian, is this year's winner of the Preston Award for
Distinguished Service to the Literary Community and Rushdie, the
novelist and determined critic of censorship, received the Champion of
Writers Award for his “steadfast commitment to free expression."
The Authors Guild represents more than 15,000 published authors and
advocates for a variety of causes, whether opposing book bans or calling
for restrictions on the use AI. The gala, held in Gotham Hall in midtown
Manhattan, was hosted by “Saturday Night Live” star Ego Nwodim.
Caro, who accepted his award through a pre-recorded video, served as
Guild president from 1979-81. He noted that many of the issues that
concerned writers decades ago still concern them, including, he joked,
“waiting for their editors to get back to them.” He otherwise called the
Guild's work as “urgent” as ever and warned that authors can't fight for
their causes alone.
“To receive this award from the community that has give me so much moves
me deeply,” he said.
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Honoree Salman Rushdie attends the Authors Guild Foundation Dinner
at Gotham Hall on Monday, April 7, 2025, in New York. (Photo by Evan
Agostini/Invision/AP)
 Rushdie referred to the Trump
administration's threats to cut off funding for universities and
drastic reductions in support for the arts and humanities and said
that “the sphere of culture is under attack as never before" in his
lifetime.
“All segments of the story of America are in the process of being
suppressed and perhaps even erased,” he said. “Authors are the
keepers of that story.”
Rushdie said he had been reading the classic 18th century novel “Candide,”
and cited the title character's decision to step back from the
tumultuous events of the world and “cultivate his garden.” His
retreat is a challenge to us now, said Rushdie, 77, who survived a
horrifying on-stage stabbing in 2022.
“Is that how we are going to respond to the crisis of our time? Or
are we going to engage with it and fight,” he said.
"Now I'm not as young as I used to be. And I've had my share of
getting beaten up. So I’m tempted, like Candide, to find a private
garden to cultivate. But I may still have a little fight left, and I
hope you all do, too.”
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