By Coral Gables Gazette staff

Questions of exile, belonging and identity — themes that echo through centuries of literature and contemporary global life — will take center stage Thursday evening at Books & Books Coral Gables, where scholars will gather to discuss a new Shakespeare-inspired collection exploring the enduring experience of displacement.

The event, titled “What Country, Friends, is This?” An Evening with James Sutton & Guests, will take place Thursday, March 12 at 5:30 p.m. at the independent bookstore’s longtime Coral Gables location at 265 Aragon Avenue. The discussion is free and open to the public, with books available for purchase and signing following the event.

The program will feature James M. Sutton, associate professor of English at Florida International University and assistant director of FIU’s Exile Studies Program, discussing his newly released book What Country, Friends, is This? Shakespeare and the Staging of Exile, published by ACMRS Press.

Sutton will be joined by fellow Shakespeare scholars Vanessa I. Corredera, Madeline Cisneros, and Stephanie E. Chamberlain for a conversation that connects Shakespeare’s portrayal of exile with modern questions of migration, identity and belonging.

Shakespeare’s enduring language of exile

The book’s title draws on a line spoken by Viola in Twelfth Night, when the shipwrecked heroine finds herself in an unfamiliar land and asks, “What country, friends, is this?” The moment captures a theme that appears again and again across Shakespeare’s plays — the disorientation and transformation that accompany displacement.

The new volume gathers fourteen scholarly essays examining how exile functions within Shakespeare’s works and how those ideas resonate in a world shaped by political upheaval, migration and cultural exchange.

The contributors explore forms of exile that extend far beyond geographic banishment. Shakespeare’s characters experience political exile, religious persecution, cultural displacement and social exclusion, offering scholars a framework for examining how identity and belonging are shaped by power and circumstance.

The book also engages the influential work of literary critic Edward Said, whose writing on exile emphasized the scale of modern displacement driven by war, imperialism, authoritarian rule and systemic inequality. By placing Shakespeare’s plays alongside contemporary global realities, the collection asks how early modern drama continues to illuminate modern debates about migration and belonging.

A panel of Shakespeare scholars

Thursday’s discussion brings together several prominent scholars whose work examines Shakespeare through the lens of race, gender, politics and cultural identity.

Vanessa I. Corredera, a professor of English at Baylor University, studies race, gender and sexuality in Shakespearean performance and adaptation. She is the author of Reanimating Shakespeare’s Othello in Post-Racial America and co-editor of Shakespeare and Cultural Appropriation. Corredera also serves as a trustee of the Shakespeare Association of America and as a general editor of the journal Shakespeare Quarterly.

Madeline Cisneros, a doctoral candidate in English at the University of Miami, brings a local perspective to the conversation. Her research explores Shakespeare’s portrayal of monarchy and political authority, with particular attention to how Shakespeare represents female power through figures such as Queen Elizabeth I. Cisneros, who grew up in Miami, draws on her own family history as the descendant of Cuban exiles in her scholarly work.

Stephanie E. Chamberlain, professor emerita of English at Southeast Missouri State University, has written widely on early modern drama, literature and cultural history. She has published in journals including Renaissance Quarterly and Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England, and has contributed to numerous edited collections examining Shakespeare’s cultural afterlives.

Together, the panel will explore how Shakespeare’s portrayals of exile — from political banishment to cultural displacement — continue to shape how scholars interpret literature in an age defined by migration and global movement.

Books & Books as a civic forum

The discussion continues a long tradition of literary programming at Books & Books, the independent bookstore founded by Mitchell Kaplan that has served as one of Coral Gables’ central cultural gathering places for decades. Author conversations, readings and panel discussions have made the Aragon Avenue bookstore a regular venue for public dialogue on literature, politics and the arts.

Thursday’s event follows that tradition by pairing academic scholarship with an open community conversation.

Admission to the event is free, though attendees are encouraged to RSVP in advance. Seating is not guaranteed and organizers recommend arriving early.

Copies of What Country, Friends, is This? Shakespeare and the Staging of Exile will be available for purchase at the event, and the authors will participate in a book signing following the discussion.

For readers interested in how Shakespeare’s plays continue to illuminate contemporary questions about identity and belonging, the evening promises a wide-ranging conversation that connects Renaissance drama with the realities of a modern world shaped by migration, exile and cultural exchange.

Event details

What: “What Country, Friends, is This?” — An Evening with James Sutton & Guests
When: Thursday, March 12, 5:30 p.m.
Where: Books & Books, 265 Aragon Ave., Coral Gables
Admission: Free; RSVP encouraged
Book: What Country, Friends, is This? Shakespeare and the Staging of Exile (ACMRS Press)