Writing the City
Delivered by the University of Sheffield Off the Shelf Festival of Words is one of the most vibrant literary festivals in the UK, bringing the best in local, national and international literary talent to Sheffield.
In this strand Beth invites guests to share their work with a specific focus on what it means to write the city.
- Wednesday 14th October, 1900, Showroom Work Station
How to Build a City with Gabriella Bennett - co-hosted by Beth Perry and Tom Goodfellow and recorded for Urban Radar
offtheshelf.org.uk/events/lessons-to-learn-from-cities-of-the-future-gabriella-bennett/
- Thursday 15th October, 1800, University of Sheffield Drama Studio
Deliverance, a crime fiction series set in Bradford, with Saima Mir
offtheshelf.org.uk/events/deliverance-saima-mir/
- Saturday 18th October, 1900, University of Sheffield Drama Studio
Wimmy Road Boyz, one wild night out in Manchester, with Sufiyaan Salam
offtheshelf.org.uk/events/wimmy-road-boyz-sufiyaan-salam/
About the strand
Books are always located somewhere; characters move through cityscapes composed of more than streets and skylines, made up of memories, traces and feelings. In this mini-series for Off the Shelf, how we write the city is the common theme. For Gabriella Bennett, cities are central. Her non-fiction book How to Build a City (2026) explores innovative urban responses to climate crisis, conflict and isolation, looking at moveable cities, tower blocks, sprawling underground structures or bomb-resistant bedrooms. The discussion will range from the Arctic to Ukraine, Tokyo to Helsinki as cities are leading protagonists in efforts to rethink how we live together on a fractured planet. Bradford-born Saima Mir’s latest book, Deliverance (2026) is the third in the Khan series, focussed on the story of Jia Khan, a successful London barrister, estranged from her Northern roots before becoming an international criminal queenpin. Challenging stereotypes around race and gender, Mir’s trilogy is also a ‘love story’ to the city and region where she grew up. Sufiyaan Salam’s Wimmy Road Boyz (2026) brings us to Manchester’s Curry Mile, capturing a single night of youthful ambition, friendship and frustration through the rhythms of contemporary urban life. Like Mir, Salam’s writing is shaped by his upbringing in the urban North, leading him to tackle questions of both gender and place, this time with a focus on masculinity, mental health and emotional repression.
Together, these works show how writing the city means more than describing place. It is an act of uncovering the social, cultural and political forces that shape everyday experience. Each text presents the city as a living, contested space. In these narratives, urban environments become characters in their own right, inviting us to reconsider how people inhabit, challenge and reinvent the places they call home.
Also featuring in Off the Shelf
Saturday 24th October, 1800, Millenium Gallery
The Ritual Year - by Kiera Chapman