Giving Voice to Exile in Literature

Asher Z. Milbauer is Courtesy Professor of English, and Founding Director of the Exile Studies Program at Florida International University. He earned his Ph.D. in English and American Literature at the University of Washington. His scholarly work reflects a deep interest in Exile Literature. Among his publications is a book on literary transplantation, Transcending Exile: Conrad, Nabokov, I. B. Singer; a wide-ranging study on exile and return, “Eastern Europe in American-Jewish Literature;” a co-edited collection of original essays, Reading Philip Roth, and another co-edited edition of original essays, Exile in Global Literature and Culture: Homes Found and Lost. His experiential-scholarly essay, “In Search of a Doorpost: Meditations on Exile and Literature,” won the Sarah Russo Prize for Literary Excellence for an Essay on Exile. He is the recipient of the “Top Scholar” distinction at FIU.James M. Sutton, Associate Professor of English at Florida International University, co-edited Exile in Global Literature and Culture: Homes Found and Lost (Routledge, 2020) with Asher Z. Milbauer. He served as department chair from 2008 – 2016; towards the end of this tenure, he led the February 2016 exhibition of Shakespeare’s First Folio in Miami. In recent years, he has published articles and chapters relating to Shakespeare in Miami and Slovenia. He is currently editing another collection of essays, concerned with Shakespeare and Exile, to be published by ACMRS Press in early 2026.

• Foreword: Why Exiles SingRichard BlancoIntroductory Essay: Running from Mount Sinai: The Inescapability of Exilic InheritanceAsher Z. Milbauer and James M. SuttonChapter 1: The Metamorphoses of Exile: Maimonides the WandererAlberto ManguelChapter 2: Exiled to Heaven: Dante and the Poetics of PilgrimageAlessandro VettoriChapter 3: Exile and Artistic Vision: On James Baldwin’s Inspirations and His InfluenceShawn Anthony Christian Chapter 4: Sophocles, Derrida and the Exile of Illness: An Historical, Literary, and Philosophic ReflectionGregory SchneiderChapter 5: Exilic Legacies: Unpacking the Suitcase of MemoriesAsher Z. MilbauerChapter 6: Exilic PilgrimagesRuth BeharChapter 7: On Being Different: The Difference that Différance MakesAna LuszczynskaChapter 8: I’m not a Nostalgia Junkie, I Just Have a Thing for PomegranatesVanessa GarciaChapter 9: There is No ReturnRodney CastilloChapter 10: Stories that Must be SpokenDiana PoussinChapter 11: Breaking from My Chrysalis: An Immigrant Becomes an ExileSofia ScottiChapter 12: The Psychodynamic Journey of Migration and ExileEugenio RotheChapter 13: “And They Did Not Return”: Exile, Loss and LiteratureMamta ChaudhryChapter 14: Cultivating Fluid Identity: A Daughter’s Tale of Chinese / Japanese Ancestry. An Interview with Gail TsukiyamaAsher Z. Milbauer and James M. SuttonChapter 15: A Bookseller in a City of Exiles and Immigrants: My DNA. An Interview with Mitchell KaplanAsher Z. Milbauer and James M. Sutton