Pico Iyer With David Guterson at Seattle Public Library

is a revelatory exploration of the abiding clarity and calm to be found in quiet retreat.
Pico Iyer has made more than one hundred retreats over the past three decades to a small Benedictine hermitage high above the sea in Big Sur, California. He’s not a Christian—or a member of any religious group—but his life has been transformed by these periods of time spent in silence. That silence reminds him of what is essential and awakens a joy that nothing can efface. It’s not just freedom from distraction and noise and rush: it’s a reminder of some deeper truths he misplaced along the way.
In Aflame, Iyer connects with inner stillness and joy in his many seasons at the monastery, even as his life is going through constant change: a house burns down, a parent dies, a daughter is diagnosed with cancer. He shares the revelations he experiences, alongside wisdom from other nonmonastics who have learned from adversity and inwardness. And most profoundly, he shows how solitude can be a training in community and companionship. In so doing, he offers a unique outsider’s view of monastic life—and of a group of selfless souls who have dedicated their days to ensuring there’s a space for quiet and recollection that’s open to us all.
Radiant, intimate, and gripping, Aflame offers ageless counsel about the power of silence and what it can teach us about how to live, how to love, and, ultimately, how to die.

Pico Iyer is the acclaimed and bestselling author of more than a dozen books translated into twenty-three languages, most recently the nationally bestselling The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise, which was named a New York Times Top 100 book and a Time Magazine best book of the year. His journalism regularly appears in The New York Times, The Financial Times, Harper’s and more than 250 other periodicals worldwide. His four TED Talks have received more than eleven million views. He divides his time between Western Japan and the Central Coast of California.

David Guterson was born and raised in Seattle and has lived in its vicinity ever since. He is the author of 12 books, including the novel Snow Falling on Cedars and the book-length poem Turn Around Time.

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This event is co-hosted by Elliott Bay Book Company, the Seattle Public Library, and the Jaipur Literary Festival-Seattle. Produced by Teamwork Arts and TRASAL (Traveling South Asian Literary Festival), JLF Seattle is the international chapter of the Jaipur Literature Festival, the world’s largest annual literary event. Taking place from September 19-21, 2025, at the Seattle Asian Art Museum and Town Hall, this literary festival promises to bring the same exhilarating energy that has made the Jaipur Festival an iconic gathering of literary minds. Supported by local universities, cultural organizations, businesses, and the wider community, JLF Seattle draws book lovers from across the West Coast and beyond..

Produced by Teamwork Arts and TRASAL (Traveling South Asian Literary Festival), JLF Seattle is the international chapter of the Jaipur Literature Festival, the world’s largest annual literary event. Taking place from September 19-21, 2025, at the Seattle Asian Art Museum and Town Hall, this literary festival promises to bring the same exhilarating energy that has made the Jaipur Festival an iconic gathering of literary minds. Supported by local universities, cultural organizations, businesses, and the wider community, JLF Seattle draws book lovers from across the West Coast and beyond.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Seattle Public Library-Central Library, 1000 4th Avenue, Seattle, United States