Author appearances, poetry and spoken word events in London this week
Thursday 2 May: The Post-Apocalyptic Book Club heads back to Waterstones Piccadilly with panelists Tom Hunter, Robert Grant, Anne C Perry, Adam Roberts, Frances Hardinge and Jeff Norton (7pm, £5 / £3).
Have a Literary Dinner with Sheila Heti at the Rag Factory, complete with appropriate menu (6.30pm, £30).
Comic artist Gary Northfield celebrates the launch of Teenytinysaurs at Bookseller Crow on the Hill in Crystal Palace (6pm, free).
Hollie McNish and Byron Vincent join Bang Said the Gun regulars Dan Cockrill, Martin Galton, Rob Auton and Peter Hayhoe at The Roebuck (8pm, £7 / £5).
Leo Hollis explains why cities are good for you at Waterstones Hampstead (7pm, £6 / £4).
British Museum director Neil MacGregor talks about objects connected to Shakespeare, at the National Theatre (5.45pm, £4 / £3).
Dan Simpson hosts a night of slam poetry and spoken word at the Genesis Cinema (7pm, free).
Christina James discusses her new crime novel and getting published, at Waterstones Gower Street (6.30pm, £5 / £3).
Read four minutes of your poetry at open mic session Poetry @ 3 at the Poetry Cafe (3pm, free).
SLAMbassadors run a workshop at the Poetry Cafe (5pm) followed by a gig hosted by Joelle Taylor (7.30pm, £3).
David Harsent and Fiona Sampson read from their latest poetry collections at The Print Room in Notting Hill (7.30pm, £8).
Friday 3 May: Mark “Mr T” Thompson and Sarah Thompson host a new monthly night at the Poetry Cafe, Lipped Ink (7.30pm, £5).
Saturday 4 May: Bobbie Darbyshire is signing copies of her novels at Waterstones Walthamstow from 11am.
Tuesday 7 May: Michael Palin chats about his novel The Truth, as well as his life and travels, in the opening event for the Asia House Festival of Asian Literature (6.45pm, £15 / £12).
Chloe Aridjis talks about her new novel Asunder with Tom McCarthy at the London Review Bookshop (7pm, £7).
Matt Haig celebrates the launch of his new novel The Humans with Booktrust at the Free Word Centre (6.30pm, free).
Seren poets Carol Rumens, Katha Pollitt and Kathryn Maris perform their work at Waterstones Piccadilly (8pm, free).
Niall O’Sullivan hosts regular Poetry Cafe open mic night Poetry Unplugged (7.30pm, £5 / £4).
Wednesday 8 May: Maggie Gee, Tessa Hadley, Fay Weldon CBE and David Harsent ask whether creativity can be taught, at Foyles (6.30pm, £5 / £3).
Tracey Thorn and Damian Barr talk with Susannah Clapp about their memoirs, at the Royal Society of Literature (7pm, £8 / £5).
Nadeem Aslam is in conversation with Homa Khaleeli about his book The Blind Man’s Garden and other works, at the Asia House Festival of Asian Literature (6.45pm, £10 / £8).
Hear John Keats’s Ode poems (Nightingale, Grecian Urn, you know the ones) performed at the Barbican Library (6.30pm, free).
See Maureen Duffy at Woolfson & Tay‘s new location on Bankside, reading from her latest collection (7pm, free).
Holly Hopkins, Hannah Lowe, Helen Mort and Katrina Naomi read their poetry at the Bush Theatre Library (7.30pm, £12).
Mark Ford, Oli Hazzard, Dante Michaux, Harriet Moore and Declan Ryan provide a bit of free poetry at lunchtime as part of UCL’s Festival of the Arts (1pm, free).
Agnes Meadow hosts Loose Muse at the Poetry Cafe, a night for women writers of all genres (8pm, £5 / £3).
Pelmeni presents a roster of international poets: Katha Pollitt, Anne-Marie Fyfe, Rosie Shepperd, Liane Strauss, Natan Barreto, Astrid Alben, Julia Bell, Rosie Shepperd, Roisin Tierney and Tim Cumming (7pm).
Follow @LondonistLit for our pick of that day’s literary events.