Introducing Pico Iyer

As some of you know, I’m on the verge of completing my MFA at the University of Iowa’s Nonfiction Writing Program. Last night was the highlight of my entire experience here: I was asked to introduce my literary idol, Pico Iyer, at a reading he gave for some 250 writers and students. I thought I would share it here, as a tribute to my long-time muse.

We have gathered here tonight for the pleasure of hearing Pico Iyer discuss his latest book, The Man Within My Head, about his lifelong fascination with the writer Graham Greene. The irony of giving this introduction is that, for the past 12 years, I have been fascinated with Pico Iyer. So, before he dazzles us with what it’s like having Mr. Greene inside his head, let me share what it’s like having Pico inside my own.

It started with an essay he wrote for Salon in 2000 called “Why We Travel.” Having spent years trying to justify my own wanderlust to my family, I was startled by the way Pico so eloquently and elegantly captured the drive inside me:

“Travel, for many of us, is a quest for not just the unknown, but the unknowing; I, at least, travel in search of an innocent eye that can return me to a more innocent self. I tend to believe more abroad than I do at home…. I tend to be more easily excited abroad, even kinder.”

This essay became my manifesto, and when I began to read his many books—Video Night in Kathmandu, The Lady and the Monk, Falling Off the Map—I picked up other insights as well, such as:

“Everything is interesting if you look at it with the right eyes.”

Interview with Carolyn Nash

One of the sweetest joys of teaching is reveling in your students’ successes. So I was thrilled when I arrived home yesterday to find RAISING ABEL in my mailbox. I worked with its deeply talented author (who is publishing under the name Carolyn Nash for this project) last summer at the Mendocino Coast Writers Conference. She astounded us all with the power of her story about raising two adopted sons, one of whom had suffered extreme abuse in his previous family. Here is an interview she recently conducted about adoption, writing, and life. 

Tell us about yourself.

I am the very lucky mother of two sons, 21 and 6. I say lucky because they are adopted and I swear I got the two best in the world. What are the chances? I mean one, sure, but two? Unfortunately, my older son didn’t come to me until he was almost 4, and much happened in his early years. My younger son came to me at 3 weeks and is deliciously obnoxious as 6-year-olds are supposed to be. I have never married, the reasons for which, along with the story of my older son’s life, are chronicled in Raising Abel.

When did you begin writing?

I began writing in earnest in high school. I remember getting all wrapped up in a story of two brothers on a coach in the 1800s going somewhere, always in constant danger. I wish I still had that story. It would be fun to see how my writing has changed. Through the years I’ve worked on numerous short stories, and have completed three novels in addition to Raising Abel. Besides stories published in a newspaper for which I worked many years ago, Raising Abel is the first story or book that I have published.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

That’s actually an important question for me. I am plagued by self-doubts, like many of us. Last summer I went to a writing conference on the northern coast of California. As part of the registration, I was required to submit a sample of my writing. I submitted a chapter from my unfinished memoir, Raising Abel, and thought no more about it. A few weeks later I was notified that my chapter won not only first prize in the conference writing contest, but also a fellowship that paid my