Book, poetry and spoken word events in London this week
Wednesday: Sarah Reilly provides the Loose Muse words at the Poetry Cafe tonight (8pm, £5 / £3). Visual artist Lorraine Clark is also on the bill, as could you be if you're brave enough to take the open mic. And you're a woman.
Literary agent Michael Sissons, author and journalist Lisa Gee and Unbound co-founder John Mitchinson discuss the future of the book at The Doodle Bar in Battersea (7.15pm, £15 / £8).
Thursday: Poet Tim Clare, RSC poet-in-residence Malika Booker and mythologist, storyteller and author Dr Martin Shaw are Tongue Fu-ing with musical accompaniment at Rich Mix (8pm, £7 / £5).
Hollie McNish and Mr Gee join the regular Bang Said the Gun crowd for a spot of stand up poetry at the Roebuck (8pm, £5).
Make a connection between words and mental health at Survivors' Poetry at the Poetry Cafe (8pm, £3.50 / £2.50 / £1.50).
Friday: Niall O'Sullivan is the main attraction at tonight's Poetry Jam at Richmond's Tea Box (7.30pm).
Saturday: The utterly fabulous Ross Sutherland performs at the Gallery Cafe (near Bethnal Green tube) for The Word House, alongside Hollie McNish and Adam Kammerling (7.30pm, £5 / £4).
Nick Trumble and Niall Spooner-Harvey host Mulbert at the Poetry Cafe – poetry, comic verses and music (7.30pm).
Sunday: The day before the T S Eliot Prize is announced, get familiar with the shortlisted authors at the Southbank Centre. There are returns only for Jane Draycott's preview of the contenders (2pm, £11), while John Burnside, Carol Ann Duffy, Leontia Flynn, David Harsent, Esther Morgan, Daljit Nagra, Sean O'Brien and Bernard O'Donoghue read from their work at 7pm (£15).
Monday: Graham Fawcett gives a lecture on Ovid at St Olave's church, near Tower Hill (6.45pm, £15 including supper).
Tuesday: We miss The Killing. Borgen is sort of helping with the withdrawal, but for a literary fix of Danish crime head to Foyles on Charing Cross Road for Lene Kaaberbøl and Agnete Friis talking about the English release of The Boy in the Suitcase (6.30pm, free but to reserve a place email jon [at]turnaround-uk.com).
Grab the Poetry Unplugged open mic at the Poetry Cafe, under the watchful eye of Niall O'Sullivan (7.30pm, £5 / £4).
Allen Fisher and Jim Goar are the poets at the long-running Blue Bus on Lamb's Conduit Street (7.30pm, £5 / £3).
Stuart Henson, Christine McNeil and Costas Nisiotis join host Ruth O'Callaghan for the Lumen Poetry Series in Tavistock Square (6.30pm, £5 / £4).
Follow @LondonistLit for our pick of that day’s literary events
