Rushdie says his fatwa story 'needs to be told'

Novelist Salman Rushdie says he will write a book about the time he spent in hiding while under a fatwa from Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini.

"It's my story, and at some point, it needs to be told," he said Tuesday at a news conference at Emory University in Atlanta.

Emory was unveiling an archive of Rushdie's personal papers, which will be open to scholars.

Rushdie did not say when he plans to begin work on the book about his 10 years in hiding in the U.K. but hinted it may be soon.

"That point is getting closer, I think," Rushdie said. "When it was in cardboard boxes and dead computers, it would have been very, very difficult, but now it's all organized."

Emory opens exhibit of Rushdie archive

Indian-born Rushdie, who won the prestigious Booker Prize for his  novel Midnight's Children, provoked ire in Iran with his fourth book, The Satanic Verses, which has a dream sequence in which there is a retelling of the life of the prophet Muhammad.

There were protests against the book in Pakistan, and in 1989 Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa ordering Muslims to kill the author and anyone else associated with the book.

Rushdie was put under police protection in Britain. A Japanese translator of the book was murdered, and attempts were made on the lives of two more translators and a Norwegian publisher.

In 1998, the Iranian government issued a conciliatory statement, and Rushdie came out of hiding.

The fatwa against him remains in place, but Rushdie says he now regards it more as "a piece of rhetoric than a real threat."

Rushdie gave Emory a collection of manuscripts in 2006, including manuscripts, unpublished works, photos and letters from his period in hiding. He is a distinguished lecturer at the university, a position he seems to relish.

"You get to sit in a room with intelligent, young people and talk about books you like. What's wrong with that?" he said.

On Tuesday, Emory opened an exhibit related to the archive, including a wall of Post-it notes that Rushdie uses in producing his novels.

Currently a British citizen, Rushdie was awarded a knighthood in 2007.