Autumn Light: Observing the Seasons and Changes in Japan
The bestselling author, whose most recent work is Autumn Light: A Season of Fire and Farewells (Knopf, 2019) will be joined by our Curator Emeritus, Diane Durston, for a conversation about the Japanese sense of seasonality, living with the cycles of the seasons, and learning to accept the constancy of change.
Whether he is guiding readers and listeners to distant lands or encouraging them to explore unknown terrain in their own hearts, Iyer eloquently speaks to the need to open up space in our crowded lives and remember what we care about most. The event takes place as a conversation with the Garden’s Curator Emeritus, Diane Durston, about the Japanese sense of seasonality, living with the cycles of the seasons, and learning to accept the constancy of change. The book — an account of a loss in the family that leads Iyer to contemplate how to hold on to what we love, when living things are ephemeral and part of the cycle of seasons and nature – will be on sale at the event.
About the Speakers
Pico Iyer is a novelist, author of several works of non-fiction, and a featured TED Talks speaker, who has been referred to as “arguably the greatest living travel writer” by Outside magazine. He divides his time between California and Japan and has said that “home has less to do with a piece of soil than a piece of soul.” He has been a regular contributor on literature for The New York Review of Books, on travel for the Financial Times, and on global culture and the news for Time, The New York Times, and magazines around the world.
Diane Durston is a writer, lecturer, cultural consultant, and educator, who lived for 18 years in Japan. For more than a decade, she served as Arlene Schnitzer Curator of Culture, Art & Education at the Portland Japanese Garden, where she has been instrumental in expanding the Garden’s reputation as a center of cultural learning. She is the author of several books, including Kyoto: Seven Paths to the Heart of the City. She has developed cultural programs introducing Japanese art, culture, religion, history, and gardens for the University of Pennsylvania, the Yale Galleries, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and other museums and universities.
The Garden+ lecture series places the Japanese garden in bold and inspiring new contexts by bringing designers, authors, practitioners, and researchers to the Garden to share fresh ideas. Come experience original perspectives, thought-provoking research, and new creative work. We bring presenters from around the globe to shed new light on how gardens connect to subjects as diverse as spirituality, technical innovation, architecture, culture, design, and society — all made more resonant with the Garden itself as a backdrop. Garden+ is a presentation of the International Japanese Garden Training Center, which is supported by the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership.