How do themes and style change when a writer is exiled? Who does an exiled writer write for? How do such things as native language, time in exile, and genre impact the writer? Writers read from their work that caused their exile, then discussed how exile—or the idea of exile—has affected their writing. Founder and director of City of Asylum, Pittsburgh’s refuge for international writers in peril, guided this panel.

Osama Alomar, a Syrian poet and short fiction writer, discusses the craft of writing in asylum and reads his flash stories “Saturns” and “A Drop” below: