Salman Rushdie's memoirs about the attack are among the twelve books nominated for one of the most important non-fiction prizes

LONDON (AP) — Salman Rushdie's account of a knife attack that left him blind in one eye is one of the nominees for a prestigious nonfiction prize announced Thursday.

Rushdie's memoir, Knife: Meditations after an Attempted Murder, is one of 12 books longlisted for the £50,000 ($66,000) Baillie Gifford Prize.

The 77-year-old novelist recounts how he was attacked in 2022 at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York State as he was about to give a lecture on how to protect writers from danger. A New Jersey man, Hadi Matar, is awaiting trial for the stabbing.

The judges described the book as “brutally clear, honest and – best of all – funny”.

Rushdie won the Booker Prize for fiction in 1981 for Midnight's Children. He spent years in hiding after Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or edict, in 1989 sentencing him to death for alleged blasphemy in his novel The Satanic Verses.

Other semi-finalists for the non-fiction prize include Australian Richard Flanagan with his memoir “Question 7” and several works on Asian history, including “Judgement at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia” by Gary J. Bass and “A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial” by Viet Thanh Nguyen.

Established in 1999, the Baillie Gifford Prize recognises English-language books from any country in the areas of current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and art. It is credited with making an eclectic selection of fact-based books accessible to a wider audience.

Last year's winner was John Vaillant's thriller “Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World,” which is based on true events about climate change.

The finalists for the 2024 award will be announced on October 10 and the winner will be crowned at a ceremony in London on November 19.

The Associated Press