Author appearances, poetry and spoken word events in London this week
Wednesday 6 February: Lucy Hughes-Hallett talks about The Pike, the story of poet, seducer and proto-Fascist Gabriele D’Annunzio, at Lutyens & Rubinstein (7pm, £5).
Storytellers from Liars’ League are at Clapham Books for some Lovers’ Lies (7.30pm, free).
Ros Barber, Chris Chalmers, Sheila Hayman, John McCullough and Roma Tearne are reading Tales of the City at Camden Working Men’s College (7pm, free).
Ross Sutherland starts a residency at Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club for his show Comedian Dies in the Middle of a Joke (7pm, £5).
Richard Seymour talks about the work of Christopher Hitchens at Housmans (7pm, £3).
Thursday 7 February: Tom Adams and Tshaka Campbell join Dan Cockrill, Rob Auton and Peter Hayhoe for Bang Said the Gun (8pm, £7 / £5).
Francesca Beard hosts Book Slam at the Clapham Grand, with Tim Key, Dan Rhodes, Katie Bonna, Richard Marsh and Aidan Moffat, all looking at the downsides of love (7.30pm, £6 / £8).
Anya Lipska launches her crime thriller Where the Devil Can’t Go at Daunt Books in Marylebone (6.30pm, free, RSVP thefridayproject@lightbrigade.co.uk).
Salon London looks beyond the book at Foyles, with Stevyn Colgan, Damian Barr and Ella Bertoud (6.30pm, £10).
Adam Daly talks about outsider writers at the European Bookshop (7pm, free).
Writers from the Arachne Press trilogy of Stations, Lovers’ Lies and London Lies read for an LGBT History Month event at Ealing Library (6.15pm, free).
Poet Noel Duffy and novelist Shauna Gilligan are reading from and talking about their work at the London Irish Centre (6.30pm, free).
Friday 8 February: Sam Berkson, Raymond Antrobus and Michelle Madsen make public transport public again, one poem at a time, at the Poetry Cafe (8pm, £5).
Gary Lachman and Antony Clayton talk about Aleister Crowley and Madame Blavatsky, ‘the Mother of Modern Spirituality’, at Westminster Reference Library (6.30pm, free but email to reserve a place).
Clare Summerskill presents 50 years of lesbian and gay oral history at Gay’s the Word (7pm, £2).
Saturday 9 February: Tom Bland, Errol McGlashan and Benedict Newbery perform at the Poetry Cafe for Platform 1; get there around 7pm if you want to be onstage alongside them (7.30pm, £5 / £4).
Jacqueline Saphra, Peter Daniels and Lesley Saunders perform poetry in the crypt at St Mary’s church, Upper Street (7pm, £4).
Pairs of poets team up at Rich Mix to read original work for Camarade IV. Some of the twosomes are Chris McCabe and Tom Jenks, George Szirtes and Carol Watts, Roddy Lumsden and Carrie Etter, and Kirsty Irving and Ryan Van Winkle (7pm, free).
Sunday 10 February: Mr Gee, G.R.E.E.Ds, Amy Acre, Chima Anya and Kristiana Colon are Jumoke Fashola’s guests at Jazz Verse Jukebox (7.30pm, £8).
Monday 11 February: Neil McKenna reads from Fanny and Stella, a story of Victorian cross-dressing, at Waterstones Gower Street (6.30pm, free).
Jude Cook, Gavin Extence, Darren Lee and Rosalind Stopps read stories and novel extracts at The Book Stops Here (8pm, free).
If you missed Arachne Press at Ealing, catch them at the other side of town reading stories at Deptford Lounge (7pm, free).
Liz Lochhead, Julian Stannard, Liz Berry, Stuart Silver and Huw Warren perform poems about what we should have said, at Coffee House Poetry (8pm, £7 / £6).
Members of the Poetry Society’s London South West Stanza perform at Barnestorm V at the Poetry Cafe, with music from LiTTLe MACHiNe (7.30pm, free).
Polarbear presents an interactive storytelling show Mon-Weds for children 9+ at the Southbank Centre (10.30am / 1.30pm, £6).
Tuesday 12 February: Craig Taylor and Amit Chaudhuri discuss writing about place with Alex Clark at Foyles (6.30pm, free but book ahead).
Former Poet Laureate Andrew Motion is at Lauderdale House to raise funds for the Mayor of Camden’s charities (8pm, £12.50).
Actors will perform eight new short and sweet stories at Liars’ League at the Phoenix (7.30pm, £5).
Poejazzi presents Anna Meredith, Harry Baker, The Magic Lantern and Jack Rooke for a night of spoken word at Surya in Islington (7.30pm, £5 / £7).
Niall O’Sullivan hosts the Poetry Cafe‘s regular open mic night (7.30pm, £5 / £4).
Follow @LondonistLit for our pick of that day’s literary events.