He is the author of numerous books on crossing cultures including Video Night in Kathmandu, The Lady and the Monk and The Global Soul.

His father was Raghavan N. Iyer, a philosopher and political theorist then enrolled in doctoral studies at the University of Oxford.

Since then, he has travelled widely, from North Korea to Easter Island, and from Paraguay to Ethiopia, while writing works of non-fiction and two novels, including Video Night in Kathmandu (1988), The Lady and the Monk (1991), The Global Soul (2000) and The Man Within My Head (2012).

In 2019, he served as Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University, Guest Director of the Telluride Film Festival.

In one of his works, The Global Soul (2000) he takes on the international airport as a central subject, along with associated jet lag, displacement and cultural mingling.

[13] Some of the topics that he explores in his works include revolution in Cuba, Sufism, Buddhist Kyoto, and global disorientation.

"[14] His writing alternating between the monastery and the airport, Iyer is described by Indian writer Pradeep Sebastian as "Thomas Merton on a frequent flier pass aiming to bring new global energies and possibilities into nonfiction".

He has also written introductions to more than 70 books, including works by R. K. Narayan, Somerset Maugham, Graham Greene, Michael Ondaatje, Peter Matthiessen, and Isamu Noguchi.

[23] The Utne Reader named him in 1995 as one of 100 Visionaries worldwide who could change your life,[24] while the New Yorker observed that "As a guide to far-flung places, Pico Iyer can hardly be surpassed.

Iyer has been based since 1992 in Nara, Japan,[26] where he lives with his Japanese wife, Hiroko Takeuchi,[2][27] and her two children from an earlier marriage.