“The first time I stepped onto the rooftop of the Potala Palace in Lhasa in 1985, I felt, as never before or since, as if I was stepping onto the rooftop of my being: onto some dimension of consciousness that I'd never visited before.”

English-born essayist and novelist

Pico Iyer is an English-born essayist and novelist known chiefly for his travel writing. He is best known for books about crossing cultures and for essays shaped by life between places. His work includes Video Night in Kathmandu, The Lady and the Monk, and The Global Soul. He has also written for Time, Harper's, The New York Review of Books, and The New York Times, and his writing often returns to travel, identity, and cultural exchange.