Salman Rushdie has made his first public appearance since he was stabbed and lost sight in one eye after being attacked at a literary event, joking that it was “nice to be back – as opposed to not being back, which was also an option”.

Rushdie was a surprise attendee at the Pen America gala on Thursday night in New York. The author was greeted with a standing ovation according to the New York Times. After his remarks about being back, he said he was “pretty glad the dice rolled this way”.

Rushdie was stabbed in the neck and torso while on stage at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York in August 2022. He was in hospital for six weeks, and as well as losing vision in one eye also lost the use of one hand.

He attended the gala to accept the Pen Centenary Courage award, and said in his speech that during his attack “the true courage was not shown by me”. Rather, the people who rushed to save his life “were the heroes”.

“If it had not been for these people, I most certainly would not be standing here today,” he said. “The courage, that day, was all theirs.”

He said he did not know their names, or see their faces, but added that he owed his life to them. Authorities arrested 24-year-old Hadi Matar after the attack on Rushdie, which also left the talk’s moderator injured. Matar has been charged with attempted second-degree murder and second-degree assault and has pleaded not guilty.

Speaking earlier this year in his first interview since the attack, Rushdie said he was lucky to have survived. “What I really want to say is that my main overwhelming feeling is gratitude,” he said.

The gala came the same week as Pen America announced it was, along with publisher Penguin Random House and a group of authors and parents, suing Florida’s Escambia County school district and school board over book bans.

Rushdie, who also this week appeared at the British book awards via a video message, said that Pen America’s mission to protect free expression was never “more important” and added: “Terrorism must not terrorise us. Violence must not deter us. A luta continua. The struggle goes on.”

The gala also awarded the 2023 Pen/Barbey Freedom to Write award to imprisoned Iranian writer and human rights defender Narges Mohammadi. The award was accepted by her husband Taghi Rahmani, who has also previously been imprisoned by Iranian authorities. He said: “I cannot forget that my children have been tortured by the Iranian government and the prison authorities who have wilfully deprived them of even the sound of their mother’s voice. Our lives in the words of my daughter, Kiana, [are] like this, ‘When mom is there, dad isn’t. When dad is there, mom isn’t’.”

Saturday Night Live creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels was given the Pen/Audible Literary Service award.