Pico Iyer

Writing themes Iyer's writings build on his growing up in a combination of English, American, and Indian cultures. In one of his works, The Global Soul (2000) he takes on the international airport as a central subject, along with associated jet lag, displacement and cultural mingling. As a travel writer, he often writes of living between the cracks and outside fixed categories. Many of his books have been about trying to see from within some society or way of life, but from an outsider's perspective. He has filed stories from Bhutan, Nepal, Ethiopia, Cuba, Argentina, Japan, and North Korea. Some of the topics that he explores in his works include revolution in Cuba, Sufism, Buddhist Kyoto. In his own words from a 1993 article in Harper's, "I am a multinational soul on a multinational globe on which more and more countries are as polyglot and restless as airports. Taking planes seems as natural to me as picking up the phone or going to school; I fold up my self and carry it around as if it were an overnight bag." His writing alternating between the monastery and the airport, Iyer is described by Indian writer Pradeep Sebastian as "Thomas Merton on a frequent flier pass aiming to bring new global energies and possibilities into nonfiction".

His books on the XIVth Dalai Lama, on Graham Greene and on his more than 100 retreats, over 34 years, with a community of Benedictines {Aflame, 2025}, underline his interest in finding an inner base and direction.

Early in his career he wrote numerous pieces on world affairs for Time, including cover stories, and the "Woman of the Year" story on Corazon Aquino in 1986. He has written on literature for The New York Review of Books; on globalism for Harper's; on travel for the Financial Times; and on many other themes for The New York Times, National Geographic, The Times Literary Supplement, contributing up to a hundred articles a year to various publications. He has contributed liner-notes for four Leonard Cohen albums. His books have appeared in 23 languages so far, including Turkish, Russian, and Indonesian. He has also written introductions to more than 100 books, including works by R. K. Narayan, Somerset Maugham, Graham Greene, Michael Ondaatje, Peter Matthiessen, and Isamu Noguchi.

He has appeared seven times in the annual Best Spiritual Writing anthology, and three times in the annual Best American Travel Writing anthology, and has served as guest editor for both. He has also appeared in the Best American Essays anthology.

The Utne Reader named him in 1995 as one of 100 Visionaries worldwide who could change your life, while the New Yorker observed that "As a guide to far-flung places, Pico Iyer can hardly be surpassed."

Personal life Iyer has been based since 1992 in Nara, Japan, where he lives with his Japanese wife, Hiroko Takeuchi, and her two children from an earlier marriage. His memoir The Lady and the Monk (1991) reflected on his relationship with Takeuchi. He also spends time in California. His family home in Santa Barbara, California, was incinerated by a wildfire in 1990, of which he wrote: "For more and more of us, home has really less to do with a piece of soil, than you could say, with a piece of soul." Asked whether he feels rooted and accepted as a foreigner, Iyer wrote:

Iyer met the 14th Dalai Lama in 1974 when he accompanied his father to Dharamshala, India. In discussions about his spirituality, Iyer has said he has no formal meditation practice, but practices regular solitude and visits a remote hermitage near Big Sur several times a year.