I’m more than a little surprised to find myself in this box: my idea of NEWS is something that happened in 1848, and I think there are better things to advertise and take notice of than my tiny doings or scribbles.

But now that DDB Singapore has brought me into the 20th century – with every sign of coaxing me into the 21st – I’m happy to welcome anyone who’s interested to this space, where we may now and then post something that’s not easily found elsewhere, a video clip from our recent journeys or something that might be of interest to anyone who’s traveled as far as this unexpected corner.

Thank you for your time and attention, and if you’re irritated by something here, please blame the brilliant designers of these pages. Without them, I’d still be in some black hole!

“A Midsummer Day’s Dream,” an essay on cricket for Wisden India 2014 Almanack: February 2014;

“The Winds of Changelessness”—an essay on the 3rd anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake—World Post, March 10, 2014;

“Night and Day”—an essay on the collective subconscious in a geopolitical context—World Post, March 17, 2014;

“The Folly of Thinking We Know”—New York Times Op-Ed on Malaysian Airlines 370, March 21, 2014;

“City Light Books has the true beat of San Francisco”–Los Angeles Times, March 24, 2014;

“Inspired by Clash of Ideas,” an essay on writing about medieval Iran while holed up in Manila’s red-light district—Los Angeles Times, April 13;

“The Miraculous Life of Gabriel Garcia Marquez,” an obituary—Time.com, April 17;

“Takashi Murakami’s Smiley Faces on a Mushroom Cloud”—World Post, May 5, 2014

“When Words Become Art”–an essay on Douglas Coupland’s Word Art, Vancouver Art Gallery catalogue. June 2014.

If you’re interested in hearing Pico Iyer talk, here are a few dates and places to try:

May 29, 2014 Conversation with Takashi Murakami for the Broad

Museum at the Orpheum Theater

Los Angeles, California

August 6, 2014 TED 250 talk

New York, New York

August 10, 2014 Virtuoso Ltd. “Travel Week”

Las Vegas, Nevada

October 2, 2014 Visiting Writer, Colgate University

Hamilton, New York

October 5-10, 2014 Launch of TED Original, “The Art of Stillness”

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

November 10, 2014 PURE Life Experiences Annual Conference

Marrakech, Morocco

December 12-14, 2014 Times of India Literary Festival

Mumbai, India

January 2015 Key West Literary Seminar: “Literature and the Spirit”

Key West, Florida

February 3-7 2015 Education Travel Conference

To be announced

February 16-20 2015 Visiting Presidential Fellow, Chapman University

Orange, California

May 1, 2015 A reading with Michael Ondaatje, Wellesley College

Wellesley, Massachusetts

May 2, 2015 A conference on “Home,” Wellesley College

Wellesley, Massachusetts

Many more engagements are currently in the works.

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