Author appearances, poetry and spoken word events in London this week
Wednesday 16 January: Andrew Kaufman, author of The Tiny Wife and the superlative All My Friends are Superheroes, is at Waterstones Piccadilly talking about his new novel Born Weird (6.30pm, £5 / £3).
Gillian Slovo, Ian Cobain, Clare Algar and Anna Perera take part in an English PEN discussion about the UK’s role in torture (6.30pm, £6).
Dr Louise Foxcroft looks at dieting through history, at the Wellcome Collection (7pm, free).
Thursday 17 January: If you missed Andrew Kaufman in Piccadilly, he’s with Tanya Byrne and hosts Marie Phillips and Scott Pack – and a lot of cake – in Windsor for the Firestation Book Swap (7.45pm, £5 or free with homemade cake).
Antipoet and Mark Niel are the guests at Bang Said the Gun at the Roebuck (8pm, £5).
There’s spoken word from Emma Bennett and Lucy Sheerman at polyPLY 23 (7pm, free).
Friday 18 January: Farrago launches a new SLAM! season at the RADA Foyer Bar with performances from UK SLAM! Champion Stephanie Dogfoot Chan, Anna Chen, Jasmine Cooray, Anthony Fairweather, Lori Zakiriyya King, Dudley Sutton and Werdplay (7.30pm, £6 / £5).
Miriam Nash launches her debut poetry pamphlet at Keats House, with Jacqueline Saphra and Kayo Chingyoni (6.30pm, free).
Saturday 19 January: n+1 editors Keith Gessen and Marco Roth will make a rare London appearance at UCL alongside LRB Editor Joanna Biggs and Pankaj Mishra (2pm, free but RSVP). Gessen and Roth’s event at the London Review Bookshop has already sold out, so get in fast.
Hear Music and Words (in the form of readings, poetry and storytelling) at The Gallery Cafe in Bethnal Green (7pm, £6 / £5).
Michael Horovitz gives a talk on Blake and Yeats at Keats House (3pm, £5).
Sunday 20 January: The Daunt Books walking book club discusses Iris Murdoch’s Under the Net while roaming Hampstead Heath. Meet at the South End Road bookshop at 11.30am.
Timothy Ades and Martina Thomson read from new translations of Victor Hugo and Paula Ludwig’s poetry at Torriano House in Kentish Town (7.30pm, £5 / £3).
Monday 21 January: Mark Billingham, Barry Forshaw, Laura Wilson, Robert Ryan and Carla Connelly are at the British Library talking about crime novels and true crime (6.30pm, £7.50 / £5).
Don Paterson is chatting to Adam Phillips at Lutyens & Rubinstein (7pm, £5).
Laydeez Do Comics bring Dr Muna Al-Jawad, John Mier and David Jesus Vignolli to Foyles (6pm, free).
Peter Daniels, Christina Dunhill, Peter Daniels and John Hegley are at the Poetry Cafe (7.30pm, £5 / £3).
Tuesday 22 January: Juliet Mushens of The Agency Group is talking at London Writers’ Club Live (7pm, £15 / £20).
Niall O’Sullivan hosts the Poetry Cafe‘s open mic night (7.30pm, £5 / £4).
Book ahead: There are still tickets available for Simon Armitage and Seamus Heaney at the Tricycle Theatre on 23 January (7pm, £35).
Follow @LondonistLit for our pick of that day’s literary events.