Podcast appearances and mentions of sarah shaffi

Journalist and fan Aja Romano examines their decision to close the books on the boy wizard and hears different viewpoints toward Harry Potter and contemporary readership. Aja Romano has been a Harry Potter fan for many years, but after personally disagreeing with statements by their author JK Rowling regarding gender identity, they are considering closing the books for good. Across the world, millions continue to embrace the Wizarding World in all its forms and JK Rowling has received a lot of support for speaking out on an important issue in a personal way. With this in mind Aja assesses the different factors at play in their choice, speaking to cultural experts, academics and fans and considering influences such as social media, trends in fan communities, "cancelling" , literary theory and more. With contributions from critic Sam Leith, writer Gavin Haynes , journalist Sarah Shaffi, Dr Ika Willis and fans Jackson Bird and Patricio Tarantino. 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' film trailer clip courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures, Director: Chris Columbus. Produced by Sam Peach

Our guest on episode 66 is Lucy Farfort, who's the illustrator of the gorgeous new picture book Afraid of the Dark, written by Isabel Otter and Sarah Shaffi.  It's a lovely book about moving house, new beginnings, friendship and finding ways to cope with fear.  Lucy and I talked about the process of illustrating books, advice for anyone who'd like to get into the field, the importance of diversity in publishing, and more.  You can see Lucy Farfort talking about and showing us her book here. ***** Want to help the Brit Lit Podcast survive and thrive?  Here are some painless ways. ***** Books Mentioned on the Podcast: Afraid of the Dark, by Isabel Otter, Sarah Shaffi, and Lucy Farfort UK / US / Worldwide Islandborn, by Junot Diaz and Leo Espinosa UK / US / Worldwide Billy and the Beast, by Nadia Shireen UK / US / Worldwide The Bear and the Piano, by David Litchfield UK / US / Worldwide Holes, by Louis Sachar UK / US / Worldwide When Life Gives You Mangos, by Kereen Getten UK / US /Wordwide Failosophy, by Elizabeth Day UK / US / Worldwide Ghosts, by Dolly Alderton UK / US / Worldwide The Little Library Year, by Kate Young UK / US / Worldwide The Little Library Christmas, by Kate Young UK / US / Worldwide Freshers, by Lucy Ivison and Tom Ellen UK / US / Worldwide All About Us, by Tom Ellen UK / US / Worldwide I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday, by Milly Johnson UK / US / Worldwide Mantel Pieces, by Hilary Mantel UK / US / Worldwide A Song for the Dark Times, by Ian Rankin UK / US / Worldwide Symona's Still Single, by Lisa Bent UK / US / Worldwide Queenie, by Candice Carty-Williams UK / US / Worldwide Unscripted, by Claire Handscombe UK / US / Worldwide ***** In the US and now the UK, buy your hardbacks and paperbacks from Bookshop.org to support the podcast, as well as independent bookshops! In other countries, you can support the podcast by using this link to buy from Blackwells.com, which ships internationally at inexpensive rates. Get your first two audiobooks for just $14.99 with the code BRITLIT on Libro.fm. Buy Claire's novel, Unscripted, here in the UK, here in the US, and here worldwide. Questions? Comments? Need a book recommendation? Email Claire at britlitpodcast@gmail.com ***** The Brit Lit Podcast Instagram / Twitter / Facebook / Website Claire Twitter / Facebook / Blog / Novel Lucy Farfort Twitter/ Instagram  / Website  

Such A Fun Age is a novel which starts with a racist misunderstanding and kickstarts our chat about race and class, the “pet to threat” phenomenon in business and why we don’t need any more slave movies. With author Kiley Reid, journalist Sarah Shaffi and Natalie and Melissa of Black Girls Book Club.

Shawanda Corbett, a ceramic artist and performer whose performances combine dance with music, prose and poetry, is the latest in our series of interviews with artists awarded a £10,000 Tate bursary in place of this year's Turner Prize. She was born with one arm and without legs and has developed a unique throwing technique in order to make pottery. Shawanda bases her vessels on people, referenced journeys out of slavery on the Underground Railroad as well as her own personal history of rehabilitation. Literary critics Sarah Shaffi and Toby Lichtig dissect the longlist of the 2020 Booker Prize. For the full list see below. Writer-director Claire Oakley discusses her acclaimed debut feature film Make Up, a coming-of-age psycho-sexual thriller set in a Cornish caravan park. And we salute Peter Green, guitarist and founder member of Fleetwood Mac, who died on Saturday. He wrote some of the most memorable melodies and riffs of the late '60s and '70s, including the evocative instrumental, Albatross. Presenter Samira Ahmed Producer Julian May

Organist Anna Lapwood, who is Director of Music at Pembroke College Cambridge, performs a Bach chorale prelude, live on the new organ she has installed in her living room. She talks about her virtual Bach-a-thon, for which musicians post videos of themselves playing Bach, and her new role as conductor of the NHS Chorus-19 - a virtual choir of over 700 NHS staff across the UK. Front Row announces the shortlist for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2020, and critics Alex Clark and Sarah Shaffi comment on the six novels that made it through from the longlist of 16. Gareth Evans, co-creator of the new Sky drama series Gangs of London, discusses how video games and his background in martial arts films influenced the look and feel of his story of a city being torn apart by the turbulent power struggles of the international gangs that control it. And the curlew. There are eight species of curlew. Or there were. Neither the Eskimo and the Slender-Billed curlew has been seen for decades. Out of the remaining six species, three are at risk of extinction. To draw attention to their plight, 21April has been designated World Curlew Day. These beautiful waders, with their elegant curved bills and haunting song, have long inspired musician and poets. The poet Jeremy Hooker lived in an area of rural Wales mid Wales. Every year the curlews came and he tried to capture them and their calls in language. We hear his poem, Curlew. Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Julian May Studio Manager: John Boland

We exclusively reveal and analyse the 2019 Costa Book Prize shortlist. Critics Alex Clark and Sarah Shaffi discuss the books chosen in the five categories: novel, first novel, poetry, biography and children's fiction. Category winners will appear on the programme in January and Front Row will announce the overall prize-winner on 28 January 2020 Rian Johnson is the director of new film Knives Out - a murder comedy with an all-star cast. His previous work includes Star Wars: The Last Jedi and sci-fi film Looper. He tells us how he copes with a Gothic whodunnit set in the real world in the present day? Is art theft on the rise? There seem to have been a spate of high profile thefts from art galleries recently - Dresden, Dulwich, Tretyakov, even the solid gold toilet at Blenheim Palace. How can institutions make their collections accessible to the public whilst also keeping the priceless works of art secure? We ask art security expert Charley Hill Presenter: Kirsty Lang. Producer: Oliver Jones

Broadway star Chita Rivera, who created the iconic roles of Anita in West Side Story and Velma in Chicago, talks to Samira about her seven decades on stage, as she prepares to perform again in London. The Woman in the Window is the bestselling psychological thriller that sparked a bidding war between publishers resulting in a two million dollar book deal and its publication in January 2018. Now its author Dan Mallory, who writes under the pen name AJ Finn, has been accused of lying and deception which helped secure his own senior position in the publishing industry as an editor. Books journalist Sarah Shaffi unpicks what this means for the man, his book and the publishing industry more broadly.Until last November Jeff Koons was the most expensive living artist sold at auction, with his Balloon Dog (Orange) fetching over $58m in 2013. As he opens his new retrospective at the Ashmolean in Oxford, the controversial artist discusses the technical challenges of creating his complex works, and his love of the Old Masters.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Hannah RobinsMain image: Samira Ahmed and Chita Rivera

Moon and Me is the new CBeebies programme by Andrew Davenport, creator of the award-winning shows Teletubbies and In the Night Garden. He discusses how his story of a doll, Pepi Nana, and the baby in the moon who travels to her doll house to tell stories and have adventures, was inspired by tales of toys that come to life when nobody is looking.Why are some musicians and writers labelled 'the voice of a generation'? Kate Mossman from The New Statesman and books journalist Sarah Shaffi discuss what characteristics earn artists this label, if it's a blessing or a curse, and who they think represent generations today or in the past.As English National Opera chief Stuart Murphy says opera has a problem with diversity and announces a strategy for nurturing BAME talent, Opera Now editor Ashutosh Khandekar and composer Shirley Thompson discuss the issue of representation in opera.Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Jerome WeatheraldMain image: Moon and Me Photo credit: BBC

As Bruce Springsteen nears the end of his 236-show run in New York, Kate Mossman reviews Springsteen on Broadway, the new Netflix film of his stage show based on his autobiography Born to Run, in which he looks back on his life and performs songs on acoustic guitar and piano.From James Bond nemesis Blofeld to Scar from the Lion King – facial disfigurements have long been commonplace for cinematic villains. A new campaign by the charity Changing Faces and the BFI, I Am Not Your Villain, wants to end the use of “scars, burns or marks as shorthand for villainy”. Kirsty talks to Changing Faces CEO Becky Hewitt and film podcaster Mike Muncer.Sarah Shaffi selects the most beautiful books to buy as presents this Christmas. In the age of streaming music and films, do books make better gifts? And theatre critic Lyn Gardner discusses the difficult financial situation facing the Liverpool Everyman Theatre, which has announced the closure of its repertory theatre company. Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Timothy Prosser

Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke explains how he composed his first feature film soundtrack for Suspiria, Luca Guadagnino's remake of the 1977 Dario Argento horror film.If you've listened to an audiobook, can you say you've read the book? According to the Publishers Association UK, spending on audiobooks has more than doubled in the past five years, to £31m in 2017. We ask literary journalists Sarah Ditum and Sarah Shaffi whether listening to an audiobook counts the same as reading one. Tim Burton's debut feature, Beetlejuice, turns 30 this year and is being re-released in cinemas. Now considered a cult classic, it follows a newly-deceased couple, played by Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis, as they commission Michael Keaton's demon Beetlejuice to drive away the ghastly family who have moved into their former home. Horror podcaster Mike Muncer looks back at the film's success.Presenter Janina Ramirez Producer Edwina Pitman

Jed Mercurio's new drama Bodyguard follows Richard Madden as a troubled war veteran assigned as protection officer to the Home Secretary played by Keeley Hawes. TV critic Alison Graham reviews this latest offering from the writer of police thriller Line of Duty.As a One Direction themed fanfiction is now being turned into a feature film; we ask if fanfiction has finally gone mainstream with books journalist Sarah Shaffi and fanfiction writer and novelist RJ Anderson. The Lovely Bones is a bestselling novel by Alice Sebold about a young girl who is brutally murdered and looks down on her grieving family from heaven. Playwright Bryony Lavery discusses turning this well loved book into a theatre piece.For our Inspire season we commissioned three artists to make a piece of work. Tonight we catch up with crime novelist Vaseem Khan to see how he's getting on. Presenter: Sharmaine Lovegrove Producer: Hannah Robins.

American footballer-turned-opera star Morris Robinson is returning to the Proms this weekend to perform as the bass soloist in Mahler's epic Symphony of a Thousand. He sings live and discusses his extraordinary move from the football stadium to the opera house. Sitting around of an evening with friends, a bottle of wine, discussing a good book - that's the cosy image of the Book Club. But the Richard and Judy Book Club is now exclusive to WH Smith, Fern Britten's is partnered with Tesco and Harper Collins, and there's even one called the Specsavers Zoe Ball Book Club. Amanda Ross, the television producer who invented the Richard and Judy Book Club, Guardian books correspondent Danuta Kean and journalist and book editor Sarah Shaffi discuss whether the cosy is turning commercial.Mission Impossible returns to our screens next week with a sixth instalment of the classic franchise. For 22 years the series has captivated audiences with its winning combination of spy games, double - and triple - crosses, hair-raising stunts and stunning set pieces in locations all around the world. Real life action-figure Tom Cruise is back, and at 56 years old is still hurling himself off buildings and dangling out of airborne helicopters. But the real mission (should they choose to accept it...) is for the film makers; keeping the film fresh. Film writer Hannah Woodhead has seen Mission Impossible - Fallout and gives her verdict.Presenter: Gaylene Gould Producer: Julian May.

We discuss some of the week’s book releases with literary journalist Sarah Shaffi and Unbound founder John Mitchinson, and nip to São Paulo to discover the kiosk-cum-independent bookshop that has transformed its neighbourhood.

Christopher Lord is joined in the studio by Sarah Shaffi – online editor for ‘The Bookseller’ – and Anne Meadows, commissioning editor for Granta and Portobello Books; together they get to grips with four of this month’s literary releases. We also head to Buenos Aires to find out about a few art initiatives hoping to boost the city’s art scene.

Author SF Said, journalist Sarah Shaffi and YA debut Catherine Barter join Melissa and Louise in the studio to talk about how books teach children to think, question and empathise with others - and recommend books that can help children to understand turbulent times.

Matt Alagiah is joined in the studio by author Cathy Rentzenbrink and Sarah Shaffi, online editor for ‘The Bookseller’, to review some of the best book releases from the past month. We head to Athens to see whether the latest influx of fairs and exhibitions has put the Greek capital on the art map and we nip over to the Royal Academy of Art for this year’s student show.

Sarah is an Online Editor at The Bookseller, and writes about books for Stylist Magazine. She is also the co-founder of BAME in publishing, a network for people who are from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds and who work in the UK publishing industry, to come together and connect. SARAH'S BOOK CHOICES: The Peacock Garden by Anita Desai Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling The Good Immigrant, edited by Nikesh Shukla Pippa tweets @sarahshaffi and you can find out more about her on her website.