Author appearances, poetry and spoken word events in London this week
Thursday 18 April: Mark Haddon and playwright Simon Stephens discuss The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time on page and stage at the Bloomsbury Institute (6.30pm, £10).
Sam Mills and Andrew Blackman are at Clapham Books to talk about their books Quiddity of Will Self and A Virtual Love (7pm, free).
Zinovy Zinik and his daughter Margarita Gluzberg talk about emigration and identity in art and literature, at Waterstones Piccadilly (6.30pm, free).
Michael Symmons Roberts reads from his latest collection Drysalter at the London Review Bookshop and talks about his work, with Jean Sprackland (7pm, £7).
Courttia Newland, Cathi Unsworth, Jerry White and Ken Worpole talk about London fictions, stories of the city, at the Bishopsgate Institute (7.30pm, £10 / £8).
Sarah Wise is at Kensington Central Library talking about psychiatry in Victorian England (6.30pm, free).
Find out about the Marquis de Leuville, a Victorian fraud in Kilburn, at Willesden Green Library Centre (6.30pm, free).
Tim Clare and Tony Walsh join the regular stand up poets at Bang Said the Gun (8pm, £7 / £5).
Kerry Hudson and Will le Fleming join Firestation Book Swap hosts Marie Phillips and Scott Pack for book chat and cake (7.45pm, £5 / free with homemade cake).
Suzannah Lipscomb and Mathew Lyons visit London Historians at The Bell in Spitalfields (7pm, £5).
Hear stories from Stations set in Brockley, Hoxton, Crystal Palace and Forest Hill at Forest Hill Library (7pm, free).
The South Bank Poetry Magazine launches issue 15 with Ruth O’Callaghan, Alexandra Fitzsimmons and others at the Poetry Cafe (8pm, £5.50 / £4.50).
Friday 19 April: See Travis Elborough on how old London Bridge ended up in Arizona, and Andrew Martin talking about the tube, at Wanstead Library (7pm, £5).
Word Factory 9 has Sam Lee, Katy Evans-Bush, Vanessa Gebbie and Tom Lee at Sutton House in Hackney (7pm, £10).
Turkish writer Kaya Genç is in conversation with Maureen Freely at the London Review Bookshop (7pm, £10).
Ovalhouse Theatre in Kennington presents a free night of spoken word from 9pm.
Harry Baker, Stephanie Dogfoot Chan, Anna Kahn, Tony Walsh and Sean Wai Keung take part in the Farrago Spring and Sonnet SLAM! (7.30pm, £6 / £5).
Saturday 20 April: Book Slam is moving into food with a (F)east at the Round Chapel in Clapton. You get a three course meal, Will Self, Adam Riches, Andrew Maxwell and Piff the Magic Dragon (6.30pm, £45).
Hear stories from Stations set in Rotherhithe, Sydenham, Norwood Junction and Forest Hill, in Coulsdon Library (3.15pm, free).
John Hegley and guests enjoy a spot of Elevenses at the Poetry Cafe (11am, £6 / £5).
Jane Yeh, John Godfrey and Maria Jastrzebska perform at Poetry in the Crypt (7pm, £4).
Sunday 21 April: Kat Francois hosts the Word4Word Poetry Slam in the Theatre Royal Stratford East Bar (7pm, free).
Katherine Gallagher and June English are the readers at Torriano Poets (7.30pm, £5 / £3).
Monday 22 April: Suzanne Joinson, Sophie Coulombeau, Molly Flatt, Bart Moore-Gilbert, Nicholas Lim and John O’Brien read at Vanguard at the Bear Freehouse (7.30pm, free).
John Mullan asks what matters in Jane Austen? at Kings Place (7pm, £9.50).
Rachida Madani launches her latest poetry collection with her translator Marilyn Hacker at the Mosaic Rooms (7pm, free).
Kid I Wrote Back runs an open mic at Bar Kick (7pm, £3).
Tuesday 23 April: Harlan Coben signs copies of his new thriller Six Years at Waterstones Leadenhall Market from 12.30pm.
It's World Book Night! Pick up copies of the selected books at one of these events: Hardeep Singh Kohli hosts a star studded night at the Southbank Centre, with guests including Andrew Motion, Tracy Chevalier, Rose Tremain and Lemn Sissay (7.30pm, £10); Natalie Haynes, James Mayhew, Beverley Naidoo and Robert Douglas-Fairhurst are at Canada Water in support of Book Aid (7pm, £10); Blake Morrison, Nii Ayikwie Parkes and Sarah Mussi at Lewisham Library (8pm, free, RSVP in advance); Liars' League at the Literary Kitchen (7pm); find other events near you on the World Book Night website.
Andy Kershaw talks about his life and book No Off Switch at Waterstones Piccadilly (7pm, £5 / £3). Elsewhere in the building, Ma Jian discusses the life of China's literary dissident Hu Feng (7pm, £3).
Miles Jupp and Andy de la Tour – currently both on stage in Alan Bennett's People at the National Theatre – talk stand up and cricket at Stratford Picturehouse (7pm, £5).
Agents Ella Kahn and Bryony Woods are the guests at London Writers' Club Live (7pm, £15 / £20).
Ben Marcus discusses his "difficult" work with Christian Lorentzen at the London Review Bookshop (7pm, £7).
Poet Anthony Hett performs a spoken word play about isolation and the importance of talking (7.30pm, £4).
Niall O'Sullivan hosts the weekly open mic night at the Poetry Cafe (7.30pm, £5 / £4).
Wednesday 24 April: Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen talk about the science of Discworld at Conway Hall. Book early, this is bound to be popular (7pm, £8 / £6).
Deborah Moggach chats about her new novel Heartbreak Hotel at Keats House (7pm, £5).
GREEdS hosts Jawdance at Rich Mix, with Deesense, Vaun Noir, Jazzman John Clarke and Rosanna Raymond (7.30pm, free).
Big Green Bookshop puts together a book swap with local writers Louise Millar, Andrew Blackman and Callum Jacobs (7.30pm, £5).
Michael Grant talks to journalist Lucy Mangan about Light, the final installment in the Gone series at Waterstones Piccadilly (6.30pm, £5 / £3).
Follow @LondonistLit for our pick of that day’s literary events.
