Spoken Word,
Spoken Word,
Sun, November 09, 2025
10:30 AM
$79.00
inc. $4 service chargeThe Mercantile Library with The Dayton Literary Peace Prize present Salman Rushdie
The Mercantile Library and The Dayton Literary Peace Prize present Salman Rushdie in conversation with James Schiff
Tickets include entrance to the event plus a copy of Salman Rushdie’s new book, The Eleventh Hour: A Quintet of Stories
*Please Note: This event will have enhanced security measures including a bag check and wanding.
From internationally renowned, award-winning author Salman Rushdie, a spellbinding exploration of life, death, and what comes into focus at the proverbial eleventh hour of life.
Rushdie turns his extraordinary imagination to life’s final act with a quintet of stories that span the three countries in which he has made his work—India, England, and America—and feature an unforgettable cast of characters.
“In the South” introduces a pair of quarrelsome old men—Junior and Senior—and their private tragedy at a moment of national calamity. In “The Musician of Kahani,” a musical prodigy from the Mumbai neighborhood featured in Midnight’s Children uses her magical gifts to wreak devastation on the wealthy family she marries into. In “Late,” the ghost of a Cambridge don enlists the help of a lonely student to enact revenge upon the tormentor of his lifetime. “Oklahoma” plunges a young writer into a web of deceit and lies as he tries to figure out whether his mentor killed himself or faked his own death. And “The Old Man in the Piazza” is a powerful parable for our times about freedom of speech.
Do we accommodate ourselves to death, or rail against it? Do we spend our “eleventh hour” in serenity or in rage? And how do we achieve fulfillment with our lives if we don’t know the end of our own stories? The Eleventh Hour ponders life and death, legacy and identity with the penetrating insight and boundless imagination that have made Salman Rushdie one of the most celebrated writers of our time.
About Salman Rushdie
Salman Rushdie is the author of fifteen novels—Luka and the Fire of Life; Grimus; Midnight’s Children (for which he won the Booker Prize and the Best of the Booker); Shame; The Satanic Verses; Haroun and the Sea of Stories; The Moor’s Last Sigh; The Ground Beneath Her Feet; Fury; Shalimar the Clown; The Enchantress of Florence; Two Years, Eight Months, and Twenty-Eight Nights; The Golden House; Quichotte (which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize); and Victory City—and one collection of short stories: East, West. He has also published six works of nonfiction—The Jaguar Smile; Imaginary Homelands; Step Across This Line; Joseph Anton; Languages of Truth; and Knife (which was a finalist for the National Book Award)—and coedited two anthologies, Mirrorwork and Best American Short Stories 2008. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University. A former president of PEN America, Rushdie was knighted in 2007 for services to literature.
About James Schiff
Born and raised in Cincinnati, Jim Schiff received his B.A. from Duke University, his M.A. and Ph.D. from New York University, and is Professor of English at the University of Cincinnati. He is the author or editor of six books on contemporary American fiction, including John Updike Revisited and Understanding Reynolds Price. In 2016, he was named by the John H. Updike Literary Trust to edit a volume of the author’s letters, which is now being published by Knopf under the title, Selected Letters of John Updike. Schiff’s work has appeared in American Literature, The Southern Review, Tin House, Critique, Studies in American Fiction, and elsewhere. He is currently working on a biography of Updike and is the editor of The John Updike Review. He has also served on various community boards, including the Duke University Trinity Board of Visitors, the University of Cincinnati Foundation, The Seven Hills School, the Community Learning Center Institute (CLCI), WCET-TV, and the Mercantile Library. Over the years, he has had the privilege of introducing and interviewing many writers at the Mercantile Library, including quite a few Niehoff Lecturers.
The Mercantile Library with The Dayton Literary Peace Prize present Salman Rushdie
The Mercantile Library and The Dayton Literary Peace Prize present Salman Rushdie in conversation with James Schiff
Tickets include entrance to the event plus a copy of Salman Rushdie’s new book, The Eleventh Hour: A Quintet of Stories
*Please Note: This event will have enhanced security measures including a bag check and wanding.
From internationally renowned, award-winning author Salman Rushdie, a spellbinding exploration of life, death, and what comes into focus at the proverbial eleventh hour of life.
Rushdie turns his extraordinary imagination to life’s final act with a quintet of stories that span the three countries in which he has made his work—India, England, and America—and feature an unforgettable cast of characters.
“In the South” introduces a pair of quarrelsome old men—Junior and Senior—and their private tragedy at a moment of national calamity. In “The Musician of Kahani,” a musical prodigy from the Mumbai neighborhood featured in Midnight’s Children uses her magical gifts to wreak devastation on the wealthy family she marries into. In “Late,” the ghost of a Cambridge don enlists the help of a lonely student to enact revenge upon the tormentor of his lifetime. “Oklahoma” plunges a young writer into a web of deceit and lies as he tries to figure out whether his mentor killed himself or faked his own death. And “The Old Man in the Piazza” is a powerful parable for our times about freedom of speech.
Do we accommodate ourselves to death, or rail against it? Do we spend our “eleventh hour” in serenity or in rage? And how do we achieve fulfillment with our lives if we don’t know the end of our own stories? The Eleventh Hour ponders life and death, legacy and identity with the penetrating insight and boundless imagination that have made Salman Rushdie one of the most celebrated writers of our time.
About Salman Rushdie
Salman Rushdie is the author of fifteen novels—Luka and the Fire of Life; Grimus; Midnight’s Children (for which he won the Booker Prize and the Best of the Booker); Shame; The Satanic Verses; Haroun and the Sea of Stories; The Moor’s Last Sigh; The Ground Beneath Her Feet; Fury; Shalimar the Clown; The Enchantress of Florence; Two Years, Eight Months, and Twenty-Eight Nights; The Golden House; Quichotte (which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize); and Victory City—and one collection of short stories: East, West. He has also published six works of nonfiction—The Jaguar Smile; Imaginary Homelands; Step Across This Line; Joseph Anton; Languages of Truth; and Knife (which was a finalist for the National Book Award)—and coedited two anthologies, Mirrorwork and Best American Short Stories 2008. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University. A former president of PEN America, Rushdie was knighted in 2007 for services to literature.
About James Schiff
Born and raised in Cincinnati, Jim Schiff received his B.A. from Duke University, his M.A. and Ph.D. from New York University, and is Professor of English at the University of Cincinnati. He is the author or editor of six books on contemporary American fiction, including John Updike Revisited and Understanding Reynolds Price. In 2016, he was named by the John H. Updike Literary Trust to edit a volume of the author’s letters, which is now being published by Knopf under the title, Selected Letters of John Updike. Schiff’s work has appeared in American Literature, The Southern Review, Tin House, Critique, Studies in American Fiction, and elsewhere. He is currently working on a biography of Updike and is the editor of The John Updike Review. He has also served on various community boards, including the Duke University Trinity Board of Visitors, the University of Cincinnati Foundation, The Seven Hills School, the Community Learning Center Institute (CLCI), WCET-TV, and the Mercantile Library. Over the years, he has had the privilege of introducing and interviewing many writers at the Mercantile Library, including quite a few Niehoff Lecturers.
