The Londonist Literary List appears every Tuesday. If you’d like to bring an event to our attention, please email [email protected].
It's all about the Indies this week, with an event by a publishing house, a literary magazine, and a Bookslammer rounding out the highlighted events below...
That said, we 'd like to use this space to appeal to Waterstone's, that ubiquitous chain, to start putting more thought and effort into hosting quality readings and events. Yes, Gordon Ramsay, Pele, and Gordon Smith might be entertaining, but they hardly qualify as members of the literary community. The way we see it, Waterstone's has a unique opportunity to contribute to the London literary scene, and they ought to take more advantage of it.
Now, on to the upstarts...
Events Around London:
Tonight, Serpent's Tail celebrates 20 years of publishing with a show at South Bank Centre featuring John Agard, Stella Duffy and Lionel Shriver (pictured), as well as a video message from Nobel Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek. It looks like all of these fine folks will subsequently be impersonated by Complicité's Simon McBurney and actor Kwame Kwei-Armah. 7:45pm. South Bank Centre. £8.50.
Also tonight, Ambit Magazine celebrates the release of its latest issue — issue #184, and believe us, any lit mag that makes it that far deserves to be celebrated — with readings by Roger Caldwell, Kate Potts, and Robert Stein. 7pm. The Owl Bookshop, 209 Kentish Town Road. FREE.
On Thursday (the 27th), Bookslam returns after a sojourn in Montreal with The Giro Playboy author Michael Smith, plus John Power, and Nii Parkes. 8pm. Cherry Jam, 58 Porchester Road. £2 before 8pm, £5 after.
New Releases:
Every Breath You Take, by Judith McNaught
The Network, by Charles Ingram
A Woman in Jeruseaum, by A.B. Yehoshua
Red Rag Blues, by Derek Robinson
Afterlands, by Steven Heighton
Cut and Run, by Nigel Jepson
Drinking With the Cook, by Laura Furman
The Sister, by Paola Kaufmann
Something Rotten, by Simon Carswell
