The week ahead in literary London
Wednesday: Express Excess celebrates its 15th birthday in the company of John Hegley, Chris Redmond and Indigo Williams (9pm, £5).
The Festival of Asian Literature puts on a night of Persian poetry from Mimi Khalvati and Ziba Karbassi (6.45pm, £10 / £7).
Iceland's Yrsa Sigurdardottir is at England's Lane Books talking about her crime novels (7pm, free).
Raymond Antrobus hosts Jawdance at Rich Mix, with Jill Abram, Jake Royston and ACT@ATC (7.30pm, free).
Travis Elborough launches the paperback of Wish You Were Here at Pages of Hackney (7pm, £3).
There's a choice of events at the Waltham Forest Literature Festival - Tall Lighthouse Poets and the Poetry Society's knitted poem (7pm, £4) or Carolina Matos talking about Latin America (7pm, free).
Rachel Cusk and Taiye Selasi celebrate Granta 115 at Foyles, with a talk about The F Word (6.30pm, free).
Thursday: Booker nominee Mohsin Hamid, Shane Solanki and Misty Miller join Patrick Neate for Book Slam at the Clapham Grand (7.30pm, £6 / £8).
There's transatlantic poetry at the London Review Bookshop, from August Kleinzahler, Mark Ford and Sean O'Brien (7pm, £7).
Warwick Cairns and Essie Fox join Scott Pack and Marie Phillips for cake and chat at the Firestation Book Swap in Windsor (7.45pm, £5 / free with homemade cake).
Three writers of books set in conflict zones talk about their work at the Festival of Asian Literature - Mirza Waheed, Roma Tearne and Daisy Hasan (6.45pm, £10 / £7).
In Waltham Forest, Carolyn Clark talks about her book Shoreditch Tales at Hale End Library (7pm, free) while poet Graham Clifford reads at the Bookshop at North Chingford (7pm, free).
Tim Hannigan tells the story of explorer George Hayward, murdered in the Hindu Kush, at the Travel Bookshop (7pm, £5).
Simon Barraclough, Isobel Dixon, Chris McCabe, Phil Fried, Sally Read and Baron Wormser are all reading at the Compass in Islington (7pm).
The Farrago May SLAM! features Abraham Gibson, Fran Landesman, Rachel Pantechnicon, Dudley Sutton, Peter Hayhoe and Kemi Taiwo (7.30pm, £6 / £5).
Friday: Sam Leith chairs a discussion on science fiction at the British Library, with Erik Davis, China Miéville, Adam Roberts and Tricia Sullivan (6.30pm, £7.50 / £5).
Liz Bentley performs her show Crash Bash Trash at the Floirin pub in Holloway (8.45pm, £7 / £5).
Julian Baggini ponders the self at Wanstead Library (7.15pm, £5).
Salmon Poetry celebrates 30 years at the Poetry Society Studio. Julian Stannard, Rita Ann Higgins, Phillip Fried and Paul Kingsnorth are reading (7.30pm).
Dodo Modern Poets are at the Poetry Cafe, with Lizzie Shirley, Graham Buchan, Kate Potts and Patric Cunane (8pm, £6 / £5).
Saturday: The Waltham Forest Literature Festival winds up with a book fair, storytelling for little ones and an evening of comedy, poetry, spoken word and music (7.30pm, £5).
There's Iranian storytelling at the Festival of Asian Literature (2.30pm, free).
Poet Anna Robinson leads a poetry and creative writing workshop at Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre (11am-2pm, free).
Wendy Klein, Jeremy Page and Anne Stewart perform their Poetry in the Crypt (7pm, £4).
Sunday: Anyone (and that includes you) can go to Ye Olde Rose and Crown in Walthamstow and read 50 words on the subject of 'freedom' to celebrate Amnesty International's 50th birthday (2pm, £5). Darren Hayman, Shaun Attwood, John Stiles and Jacqueline Gabbitas are among the confirmed readers.
Monday: Nichola Shulman talks about Tudor courtier Thomas Wyatt, at Lutyens & Rubinstein (6.30pm, £5).
Tamara Chalabi and Ali Allawi discuss Iraq at the Festival of Asian Literature (6.45pm, £10 / £7).
At Kings Place, Ed Siegle and Héctor Abad talk about approaching South America's disappeared in their work (7pm, £9.50).
Chroma presents New Queer Poetry by Sophie Mayer, John McCullough and Andra Simons (7pm, free).
Tuesday: If you're lucky, there may be some tickets still available for Alan Bennett's appearance to raise funds for the campaign to save Brent libraries. We wouldn't bet on it, but it's worth checking out (7.30pm, £10).
Will Indian science take over the world? Angela Saini and Alok Jha debate at the Festival of Asian Literature (6.45pm, £8 / £6).
Donna Leon is talking about her Commissario Brunetti series of crime novels, but also Handel and animals, at Daunt Books in Marylebone (7.30pm, £8).
Writers' Mutual is a place for experienced writers to get feedback from peers on their work - meets weekly at Eastside Books in Brick Lane (7pm, £6 / £5).
Niall O'Sullivan hosts the weekly open mic night at the Poetry Cafe (7.30pm, £4 / £3).
London Writers' Club invites HarperCollins crime editor Rachel Rayner to chat (7pm, £10).
