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!

“How Far Would you Travel for Happiness?”–A rich conversation with Marianna Pogosyan for her Psychology Today blog, posted November 8, 2023.

“Our constant search for Paradise”—a long interview with the TED Radio Hour, broadcast on November 10, 2023

A long and rich e-mail conversation with Caryl Phillips, on migration and exile, in The Palgrave Handbook of European Migration in Literature and Culture—published November 21, 2023.

“The Mahabharata of Literary Festivals”—an essay on the Jaipur Literature Festival for Air Mail, January 27, 2024

“The Truth in Search of Itself”—a review of the powerful book American Mother, by Diane Foley and Colum McCann in Air Mail, February 3, 2024.

“The Deformative Years”—a very personal review of A Very Private School by Charles Spencer for Air Mail, March 17, 2024

“Love and Let Die”– a review of Ian Fleming: The Complete Man, by Nicholas Shakespeare for Air Mail, March 31, 2024

A very brief text for the book of photographs Devotion, by Steve McCurry, published in the U.S. in March 2024 (in Europe December 2023).

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

April 9Conversation for Lauren Groff, UCSB A&L
Santa Barbara, California
April 11 Keynote, Convent and Stuart Hall School
San Francisco, California
April 13 Conversation for Book Passage Book Group (virtual)
Corte Madera, California
April 16 Conversation with Helen Tworkov, Asia Society
New York, New York
April 20-21 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books
Los Angeles, California
April 22 Conversation with Jim Doti, Chapman University
Orange, California
April 25 Isherwood- Bachardy Lecture, Huntington Library
San Marino, California
April 30 Conversation with Amanda Gorman, UCSB A&L
Santa Barbara, California
May 4 Commencement Address, Lewis and Clark College
Portland, Oregon
July 8-13 Modern Elder Academy workshop with Chip Conley
Santa Fe, New Mexico
September 13-15 Jaipur Literature Festival Boulder
Boulder, Colorado
September 16 Conversation with Katherine Bucknell, Huntington Lib.
San Marino, California
September 22Lecture/Conversation, Trinity Church Wall Street
New York, New York
Sept 23 – Oct 12 Montgomery Fellow, Dartmouth College
Hanover, New Hampshire
Sept 30Keynote, Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Nov. 15-17Mumbai Literature Festival
Mumbai, India
October 2025 Bali Literature Festival
Ubud, Indonesia

Many more engagements are currently in the works.

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