London Book And Poetry Events: 20-26 June

Rachel Holdsworth
By Rachel Holdsworth Last edited 141 months ago
London Book And Poetry Events: 20-26 June

Author appearances, poetry and spoken word events in London this week

Wednesday: Is the outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury trying out a new job? Rowan Williams talks to poet Fiona Sampson about language and faith at the LSE (7pm, £10).

Philippa Perry is at Clerkenwell Tales talking about How to Stay Sane, her contribution to the School of Life series (7pm, free).

It's a Brixton vs Barnes poetry battle in the Poetry Cafe's Stanza Bonanza (7.30pm, free).

Andrew Motion talks about the poetry of London at the Bedford Park Festival in Turnham Green (8pm, £7.50).

Students on the short story course at City University read their work at The Old China Hand pub in Clerkenwell (9pm, free). What better way to celebrate National Short Story Day?

Thursday: Find out about London's lost underground and railway stations with Ben Pedroche at Clapham Books (7pm, free).

We definitely know that Ben Aaronovitch is appearing at Waterstones Piccadilly, but because of website maintenance we can't give you a direct link, start time or price. Bummer.

Kate Summerscale has followed up her hit The Suspicions of Mr Whicher with Mrs Robinson's Disgrace. She's talking about it to India Knight at Lutyens and Rubinstein (7pm, £5).

Rachel Lichtenstein chats to Iain Sinclair about Hatton Garden and her book Diamond Streets, at Clerkenwell Tales (7pm, free).

Scott Pack and Robert Hudson hand round free cake at the Firestation Book Swap in Windsor, while talking to guest authors Vanessa Gebbie and Shelley Harris (7.45pm, £5 or free with homemade cake).

Luke Wright and Sabrina Mahfouz are the special guest poets at this week's Bang Said the Gun in Borough (8pm, £5).

Bands and Books returns to Hackney, the words coming from Stuart Evers, Zoë Howe and James Eve, the tunes from Fountains and Tied to the Mast (7.30pm, £3).

Friday: Farrago hosts its summer SLAM in the RADA Foyer Bar, with featured appearances from Hamza Beg, Anna Chen, Karmelle, Cherry Smyth, Niall Spooner-Harvey, Dudley Sutton and Funmilayo (7.30pm, £6 / £5).

Peter Daniels and Leah Fritz are the guests at Fourth Friday at the Poetry Cafe (8pm, £6 / £5).

Saturday: Kevin Crossley-Holland, Penelope Shuttle, Katherine Gallagher and Myra Schneider perform Poetry in Palmers Green (7.30pm, £5 / £3.50).

The Mirabeau Project presents poetry from Richard Price and music from Caroline Trettine at The Prince in Stoke Newington (8pm, £5).

Sunday: Oliver Bernard reads Rimbaud and Catherine Fried reads Erich Fried (translated) at Torriano Poets (7.30pm, £5 / £3).

Monday: Sebastian Faulks discusses Birdsong for the Guardian Book Club at Kings Place (7pm, £9.50).

Tuesday: Poetry Parnassus kicks off at the Southbank Centre: tons of events happening for the rest of the week celebrating world poetry. It's quite hard to pick highlights, but here are a few: the Poetry Takeaway are serving up customised poems, you can get a personal reading on the roof of Queen Elizabeth Hall or, just for today, hear a free lunchtime performance also on the roof, or write your own Poem on the Underground in an inflatable tube carriage.

Dr Brown, Rich Fulcher and Katy Guest pass judgement on Literary Death Match contenders Polly Courtney, Jonathan Lee, Benjamin Wood and Roshi Fernando (8.15pm, £5 / £8).

Roger Robinson hosts Book Slam at the Clapham Grand (7.30pm, £6 / £8), with bestselling authors Marina Lewycka and Chris Cleave introducing their new books.

Follow @LondonistLit for our pick of that day’s literary events.

Last Updated 20 June 2012