Writing the City - Part 2
How does a city shape the stories we tell? Author Saima Mir explores Sheffield, identity, motherhood and belonging through her crime novel Deliverance.
In this three-part feature, we take a look at different ways of writing the city and how cities are brought into view through journalism and fiction. Recorded live at the Off the Shelf festival in Sheffield in 2026, we talk with three writers - Gabriella Bennett, Saima Mir and Sufiyaan Salam about home, belonging, identity and wider questions of representational justice. Across the talks, key themes include how different forms of writing approximate the 'truth', how journalism and fiction give us space and time to understand cities beyond academia and what the connections are between writing the city and the right to the city.
The introduction and wrap up are included in Part 1.
In Part Two Beth interviews Saima Mir about her book Deliverance which is the third in the Khan trilogy. More than a crime novel, Mir brings the city into view as a silent protagonist shaping urban destinies, from global empires and industrial decline to shadow economies and sweet shops. The conversation turns to the ‘truth’ that can be found in fictional accounts of the city, helping us to unpick how we navigate intersecting urban lenses of femininity, race, motherhood, and being a northerner.
Listen to Parts One and Three here:
Saima Mir is an award-winning journalist and bestselling author. She has written for The Guardian, The Times, The Independent and The Daily Telegraph, and worked for the BBC. Her work appeared in the anthology, It’s Not About the Burqa in 2019 and received over 250,000 hits online in two days. She is the author of the Times Bestseller, The Khan, and its sequels Vengeance and Deliverance. Saima grew up in Bradford and now lives in London. Mir is also the editor of The Book of Bradford whose stories demonstrate the resilience of Yorkshire’s third largest city, the former ‘wool capital of the world’ which has overcome challenges and evolved into a proudly modern city, famed for its rich diversity and vibrant cultural landscape.
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Credits
- Guest: Saima Mir (Journalist and Author)
- Podcast Production, Presentation & Editing: Beth Perry (Professor of Urban Epistemics at the University of Sheffield and Director of the Urban Institute)
- Podcast Production, Presentation & Editing: Tom Goodfellow (Professor of Urban Development at the Global Development Institute, The University of Manchester)
- Post-Production Editing & Marketing: Dr Sam Burgum (Urban Institute Visiting Fellow at the University of Sheffield)
- Training & Production Support: Jack Clayton (Creative Media Service Support Adviser at the University of Sheffield)
- Distribution, Promotion and Marketing: Vicky Simpson (Research Manager at the University of Sheffield)
- Podcast Cover: Dan Farley Designs
- Music: Horizon (Music by Tom Goodfellow, Recorded & Produced by Alan Thomson), Falling Down (Music by Tom Goodfellow, Performed by the Dice, Produced by Alan Thomson)
- Image Credit: Dr Maria Tomlinson
- Special Thanks: Supported by the Faculty of Social Science and the Creative Media Suite at the University of Sheffield and University of Manchester and their Media Suite
