By HILLEL ITALIE

NEW YORK (AP) — Robert Caro, Salman Rushdie and Sandra Cisneros were honored Monday night at an Authors Guild dinner gala that celebrated the written word and its vital role in the preservation of democracy.

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“The world we live in is a house on fire and people we love are burning,” said Cisneros, the fiction writer, poet and pacifist who was presented the Baldacci Award for Literary Activism. Caro, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, is this year’s winner of the Preston Award for Distinguished Service to the Literary Community and Rushdie, the novelist and determined critic of censorship, received the Champion of Writers Award for his “steadfast commitment to free expression.”

The Authors Guild represents more than 15,000 published authors and advocates for a variety of causes, whether opposing book bans or calling for restrictions on the use AI. The gala, held in Gotham Hall in midtown Manhattan, was hosted by “Saturday Night Live” star Ego Nwodim.

Caro, who accepted his award through a pre-recorded video, served as Guild president from 1979-81. He noted that many of the issues that concerned writers decades ago still concern them, including, he joked, “waiting for their editors to get back to them.” He otherwise called the Guild’s work as “urgent” as ever and warned that authors can’t fight for their causes alone.

“To receive this award from the community that has give me so much moves me deeply,” he said.

Rushdie referred to the Trump administration’s threats to cut off funding for universities and drastic reductions in support for the arts and humanities and said that “the sphere of culture is under attack as never before” in his lifetime.

“All segments of the story of America are in the process of being suppressed and perhaps even erased,” he said. “Authors are the keepers of that story.”

Rushdie said he had been reading the classic 18th century novel “Candide,” and cited the title character’s decision to step back from the tumultuous events of the world and “cultivate his garden.” His retreat is a challenge to us now, said Rushdie, 77, who survived a horrifying on-stage stabbing in 2022.

“Is that how we are going to respond to the crisis of our time? Or are we going to engage with it and fight,” he said.

“Now I’m not as young as I used to be. And I’ve had my share of getting beaten up. So I’m tempted, like Candide, to find a private garden to cultivate. But I may still have a little fight left, and I hope you all do, too.”