This article explores exile as a religious orientation, focusing on three recent memoirs by American university professors: Edward Said's Out of Place, Leila Ahmed's A Border Passage, and Carlos Eire's Waiting for Snow in Havana. These writers criticize the political conditions that led to their exile even as they find compensatory or consoling meaning in their experience. The ways in which Said, Ahmed, and Eire shape their memoirs reflect distinctive versions of an exilic worldview, each with a significant religious dimension. In dialogue with Thomas Tweed's understanding of exile, I argue that autobiographical writing provides insights that cannot be duplicated by other approaches to religious studies. This article suggests the value of autobiography for religious studies and the particular contributions of the recent turn to memoir by American humanities professors.