London Book And Poetry Events: 30 May-5 June

Rachel Holdsworth
By Rachel Holdsworth Last edited 142 months ago
London Book And Poetry Events: 30 May-5 June

Book, poetry and spoken word events in London this week

Wednesday: Ben Okri talks about his first poetry collection in more than a decade, at Canada Water library (7pm, free).

The Festival of Asian Literature closes with William Dalrymple discussing his book The Last Mughal, with music from Vidya Shah (6.45pm, £15 / £12).

Inc Zine celebrates its fifth issue at The Book Club with Mr Gee, Catherine Brogan, Dan Simpson, Toby de Angeli, Gary from Leeds, Nick Jarvis, Richard Purnell, Marta Owczarek, Anya Pearson and Will Coldwell (7pm, £5).

Rene Auberjonois has written a new play based on the works on Tom Wolfe. See it at the Poetry Cafe for free (7.30pm).

Thursday: Will Self, Dr Karen Seago and translators Dr Anthea Bell and Dr Joyce Crick talk about problems with translation, particularly when it comes to Kafka, at City University (5pm, free).

Helen Simpson and Michèle Roberts talk about fiction and women at the London Review Bookshop (7pm, £7).

Keaton Henson, James Sallis and Tony Law are the guests at this month's Book Slam at the Tabernacle (7.30pm, £8 / £10).

Pete the Temp and Chris Lynam head to Bang Said the Gun for some stand up poetry at the Roebuck (8pm, £5).

Friday: The Stoke Newington Literary Festival kicks off with fantastic comedians Robin Ince and Josie Long talking about how much they love books (7pm, £10). Elsewhere you can see Pauline Black (8pm, £5), Miriam Elia and Bruno Vincent (10pm, £5) and poetry from Clare Pollard, Tim Wells, Niall O'Sullivan and more (10pm, free).

Michael Glover and Eric Ormsby are the guests at Camden Poetry Series (7pm, £5 / £4).

Kat Francois hosts Intimates SLAM at the Poetry Cafe (8pm, £5 / £3).

Saturday: Sarah Irving talks about Leila Khaled, "the poster girl of Palestinian militancy", at Housmans (6.30pm, £3).

Back in Stoke Newington there's too much going on to list in full, so our highlights are Justin Cartwright and Jonathan Lee discussing London novels (12pm, £5), Pete Brown and Robin Turner debating the perfect pub (1pm, £4), China Miéville, Laura Oldfield Ford, Ken Worpole and Iain Sinclair talking about the Olympic legacy (Iain Sinclair definitely has thoughts on this one, 2pm, £6), Jackie Kay at 3pm (£6), Lindsey Hilsum and Suzanne Moore talking about Libya (6pm, £4), John Cooper Clarke and Simon Day (7.30pm, £15) and Literary Death Match (8pm, £5).

Salisbury House Poets invite Helen Boland, Bruce Carson, Jennie Christian, Brian Docherty, Miranda Hampton and Rabi Mariathasan to perform their work (7.30pm, £3.50 / £2.50).

Sunday: Highlights of Stoke Newington again: Craig Taylor and Mark Mason talking about their fantastic books on London (1pm, £5), screenwriter Tony Grisoni discussing Kingsland (2pm, £5), Joe Dunthorne running a Choose Your Own Adventure at 3pm (£5), Jenny Colgan chatting over tea about chick lit and Doctor Who (4pm, £5), Danny Wallace (4pm, £8) and transatlantic storytelling from The Special Relationship (6pm, £4)

Monday: Richard Tyrone Jones, Marianne Morris and Radcliffe Royds are the spoken worders among the comedians and musicians performing at Stand Up Tragedy at Leicester Square Theatre (8.30pm, £10 / £8).

Magma launches issue 53 at Coffee House Poetry, in the company of Maura Dooley and Ian Duhig (8pm, £7 / £6).

Tuesday: Try out your own poetry at the Poetry Cafe's open mic night, hosted by Niall O'Sullivan (7.30pm, £5 / £4).

There's another poetry open mic at Beyond Words in the Gipsy Hill Tavern. Featured performers are Clare Pollard and Zakia Carpenter-Hall (7.30pm, £4 / £3).

Book ahead: Tickets are now on sale for Craig Taylor's Londoners Literary Dinner, to be held at Islington Metal Works on 15 July.

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

Last Updated 30 May 2012