Juliano (Jay) Zaffino is a British-Canadian writer, reviewer, editor, dramaturg, and sometime-photographer living in London. He also runs the online book community YourShelf.

Writer
Jay is represented by Lucy Luck at C&W Agency. He is working on his debut novel.

His debut poetry collection, All Those Bodies And They’re Moving, was published in 2020. A poem from the collection, ‘Strasbourg’, inspired Florence + the Machine’s fifth studio album, Dance Fever. Florence described Jay as “a constant purveyor of literary delights” in the album liner notes.

You can read more about Jay’s work here.

Reviewer
As an avid (maybe even compulsive) reader, Jay has been sharing short reviews of every book he has read in the last few years on Instagram. He has also written full-length reviews for online publications Severine, Lunate and Indelible, and for his own newsletters and platforms.

Jay is open to commissions for short and full-length reviews, essays, and similar work. Feel free to enquire directly.

Editor
In 2016 Jay founded YourShelf, a book subscription service, through which he shared his love of reading with people all over the world. This led to The YourShelf Podcast, where Jay has interviewed many of his favourite writers, and The YourShelf Press, a publishing imprint which has published Jay’s debut poetry collection, as well as SELF ESTEEM (2021) by Rebecca Lucy Taylor. The bourgeoning British pop-star’s first book of poems, lyrics, and notes was edited by Jay, and was selected as one of NME’s 10 Best Music Books of 2021.

Dramaturg
In 2024, Jay completed his PhD thesis, Cutting Shakespeare: Promptbook Practice at the Royal Shakespeare Company, 1961-2021. Jay’s research explores how Shakespeare’s plays have been cut and edited for performance over time. Jay served as a textual consultant on director Tamara Harvey’s Pericles at the RSC in 2024. Jay continues to seek practical uses for six years of research by working as a freelance textual consultant and dramaturg, for Shakespeare and his contemporaries, new writing, and anything in between.

Photographer
Jay is an amateur film photographer looking to experiment more with portraits and headshots. His photos can be seen here.

Photos of the author are by Antony Zacharias.
All other photos are by the author.