Creative Community Welcomes Pico Iyer

Santa Barbara, CA – July, 2025

This week on TVSB, one of our programming classics – Creative Community – had the pleasure of welcoming Pico Iyer, acclaimed essayist and novelist, who has recently returned to the literary scene with the publication of Aflame: Learning From Silence, one of his most personal works.

David Starkey, host of Creative Community for over two decades, delves into the depths of the author’s mind in an interview that sheds light on the intricacies of the acclaimed book.

Aflame: Learning From Silence is an autobiographical account in which Iyer vividly describes a reality all too familiar in California: wildfires. He recounts the loss of his mother’s home in Santa Barbara during the 1990s, and how he had little more than enough time to save her cat.

In this episode of Creative Community, Pico Iyer shares his personal experience firsthand, an experience that resonates with many others in the community.