The Toronto International Festival of Authors has added a new event to their fall lineup in support of Salman Rushdie and the freedom to read.

The Freedom to Write and to Read: Standing with Salman Rushdie is being put on in partnership with PEN Canada, Penguin Random House Canada, the Writers’ Trust of Canada, and TIFA. The event, which will take place on September 27 in Toronto, was announced nearly a month after Rushdie was attacked while onstage at an event in western New York on August 12.

“At a moment of rising intolerance, this brutal attack reminds us of the fragility of freedom of expression and the moral obligation to defend it, today, tomorrow, and every day,” PEN Canada president Grace Westcott said in a release.

The event, which will be hosted by the CBC’s Matt Galloway and feature Margaret Atwood, former governor general Adrienne Clarkson, John Irving, Ian McEwan, Deepa Mehta, Rohinton Mistry, John Ralston Saul, and Shyam Selvadurai reading from Rushdie’s work, is intended as both a show of solidarity with the author and a celebration of his courage. Rushdie has been under a fatwa since 1989, not long after the publication of his novel The Satanic Verses.

“In 1988, the Toronto International Festival of Authors proudly hosted Salman Rushdie to discuss his new novel, The Satanic Verses,” TIFA director Roland Gulliver said in a release. “In 2022, the role of literary festivals remains the same: celebrations where stories from all perspectives are shared safely with openness and respect. Protecting book events as safe places for all kinds of discussion is integral to the very spirit of their celebration.”

Details and registration for this free event are available online.