Salman Rushdie to write about being in hiding

Novelist Salman Rushdie plans to use a digitalised archive of his personal papers to write a book about his time in hiding from death threats.

Speaking at Emory University in Atlanta, where an exhibition of his work will open at the end of this week, The Satanic Verses author said the story of how he evaded the Iranian government-backed fatwa is something he will have to write eventually.

Rushdie donated his literary archive to the university's special collections library in 2006 and it has since been transferred into a digital format. The 62-year-old said this will be important when it comes to researching the new book.

'It's my story and, at some point, it needs to be told. That point is getting closer, I think. When it was in cardboard boxes and dead computers, it would have been very, very difficult, but now it's all organised,' he commented.

The exhibition will showcase a selection of the author's private writings, including unpublished works, manuscripts from his novels and Post-Its he made notes on. His private journals from when he was in hiding, however, will not be shown to the public until after his death.

Rushdie has been a distinguished writer-in-residence at Emory University, where he teaches and presents public lectures, since 2007.