Book Grocer: 12-18 May

Rachel Holdsworth
By Rachel Holdsworth Last edited 166 months ago
Book Grocer: 12-18 May

BookGrocer1.jpg The week ahead in literary London

Wednesday: Tonight is European Literature Night - 16 cities across the continent are hosting wonderful lit'ry events, and ours starts at 6.30pm in the British Library (£7.50 / £5). Paolo Giordano and Julya Rabinowich are among the authors reading.

The Festival of Asian Literature is still on. Francis Pike discusses how 'modern Asia' developed at 6.45pm.

Celebrate the new issue of Modern Poetry in Translation at the London Review Bookshop, where David Constantine will be in conversation with translator Allen Prowle (7pm, £6).

Daniel Hahn, Pietro Grossi Julia Franck and Anthea Bell are all at Foyles for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2010 event. Get down there to hear about the relationship between novelist and translator (6.30pm, free but email to reserve a place).

Thursday: It's Cringe Night at Hoxton Hall - prepare to hear terrible poetry and lots of 'it's not fair' wailings (7.30pm, £10).

Ambit magazine has just published its 200th issue, containing poetry from Fleur Adcock, artwork from Posy Simmonds and more. Join them at The Reliance in Old Street from 6.45pm for fun and readings from David Gaffney and Naomi Foyle. It's free, what more do you want?

Adam Foulds talks about his Booker shortlisted novel The Quickening Maze at Waterstones Gower Street from 6.30pm (£3).

Simon Barraclough has gathered 12 fellow poets and asked them to write a new interpretation of Hitchcock's Psycho. If you didn't catch Psycho Poetica at the BFI the other month, you have another chance at the Whitechapel Gallery from 7pm (£5).

Heading south west? Maybe stop by Earlsfield Library for a night of poetry, prose and music featuring former UK Slam Champion poet Racker Donnelly, poet Joanna Ezekiel, author Robin O'Brien and Rhythm of London's Young Busker of the Year, Jamie West (7pm, free).

Friday: Get in quickly for this: Zoe Margolis, better known as the Girl With A One Track Mind, Kat Banyard, Abi Grant and Mary Wolfe are talking about a woman's perspective at Stratford Circus (8pm, £6). This should be a witty and fairly explosive night.

The excellent Simon Armitage launches his new poetry collection, Seeing Stars, at the South Bank Centre tonight (7.45pm, £10). Stuart Maconie chairs the chat and DJs afterwards, if you need any more convincing.

Poetry and prose combine to celebrate the Sixties in a Summer of Love at the Exmouth Arms (7.30pm, £7).

Combine poet and novelist Jeremy Reed with musician and producer Itchy Ear and you get The Ginger Light. Catch their performance poetry in Bloomsbury from 7.30pm (£5).

British Asian poets Moniza Alvi, Daljit Nagra, Imtiaz Dharker and Kavita Jindal discuss their work at the Festival of Asian Literature (6.45pm).

Saturday: Authors Jimmy Burns and Chris Hunter will talk spies and espionage from World War Two to the present day at Battersea Park Library (2pm, free).

Sunday: Michael Bartholemew-Biggs and Peter Ebsworth are tonight's Torriano Poets in Kentish Town (7.30pm, £5 / £3).

Monday: The Josephine Hart Poetry Hour turns to WH Auden, and does so at the National Theatre - home to Alan Bennett's The Habit of Art, featuring Auden as a central character. Eileen Atkins, Jeremy Irons and Damian Lewis read the great man's work (6pm, £3.50 / £2.50).

Three writers of Asian crime fiction, Diane Wei Liang, Hirsh Sawhney and Glen Peters, chat about their work at the Festival of Asian Literature (6.45pm).

Tuesday: Niall O'Sullivan hosts the Poetry Cafe's open mic night (7.30pm, £4 / £3).

Last Updated 12 May 2010