Author appearances, poetry and spoken word events in London this week
Thursday 30 May: Jenni Fagan, Ros Barber and Gavin Extence, shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize 2013, read and chat at Foyles (6.30pm, free but reserve in advance).
Patrick McGrath talks about his novel Constance at the Bloomsbury Institute (6pm, £20 with book / £10 without).
Luke Wright’s Your New Favourite Poet show continues at the Leicester Square Theatre (7pm, £10 / £8).
The London Literature Festival at the Southbank Centre continues: there are still some tickets left for Claire Tomalin’s lecture on Pepys (6.30pm, £10).
Anjan Saha introduces poets from St. Kitts, Bermuda, Grenada, India and the UK for Poetry Parnassus at the Keats Festival (6.30pm, £5).
Leo Hollis says Cities are Good For You at West End Lane Books (7.30pm, free, book in advance).
Martin Figura and Catherine Brogan are the guests at Bang Said the Gun‘s poetry club night (8pm, £7 / £5).
Taiye Selasi talks about Ghana Must Go at Waterstones Covent Garden (6pm, £4 / £3).
Emma Fleming, Stephanie Gerra, Stephanie Goldberg, Irving Jones and Stephen Keyworth tell stories of family as Future Perfect at The Harrison in Kings Cross (7.30pm, £6 / £5).
Jon and Luisa Edwards discuss The Boy Who Was Born a Girl at Gay’s the Word (7pm, £4).
There’s a mixture of Mexican and British poetry at Rich Mix with Tom Raworth, Carol Watts, Tom Chivers, David Berridge, Tim Atkins, Jeff Hilson, SJ Fowler, Holly Pester and Rocio Ceron (7pm, free).
Matt Haig reads from and talks about The Humans at Bookseller Crow on the Hill, which also celebrates its 16th birthday (7.30pm, £3).
Rabbi Jonathan Wittenburg tells all about walking from Frankfurt to Finchley at the Wiener Library (6.30pm, free but book ahead).
For poetry about zombies from Sebastian Handley, Anna Kahn, Irina Jauhiainen, Tom Bland and Roy Canty, head to the Poetry Cafe (7.30pm, £5 / £4).
Friday 31 May: The London Literature Festival starts its London weekend: today’s highlights include Craig Taylor’s One Million Tiny Plays About London (7pm / 8.45pm, £10), Inua Ellams’s Midnight Run (8.30pm, £5), the start of summer-long project London Lines (10am, free): non London events include William Dalrymple (7.30pm, £10).
Ruth Padel, David Wheatley, Kathryn Maris and Richard O’Brien launch the latest issue of Poetry London at Foyles (6.30pm, £4 / £3).
At Kirkdale Bookshop, Sam Mills (The Quiddity of Will Self) and Kate Williams (The Pleasures of Men) read from and talk about their books (7.30pm).
Muswell Press poets Leo Aylen and Alan Franks read at the Keats Festival (6.30pm, £5).
Saturday 1 June: More London stuff at the London Literature Festival: the start of summer-long project London Lines (2pm, free), Point Blank Poets (8pm, £8), Charlie Dark and Run Dem Crew take the kids on a superhero run round the Southbank Centre (10.45am, free but book ahead) while there’s a more adult adventure with Tom Chivers’s River Neckinger pilgrimage (12pm and 1pm tomorrow, £5).
Cath Drake hosts poets Kayo Chingonyi, Jocelyn Page, Saradha Soobrayen and Jacqueline Saphra at the Keats Festival (6.30pm, £5).
Nihat Tsolak hosts poetry of spring at the Poetry Cafe (8pm, £5).
Sunday 2 June: The final day of the Keats Festival has an open mic plus performances from Anthony Anaxagorou, Raymond Antrobus, Simon Mole, Deanna Rodger, Dean Atta and others (1.30pm, free), poetry in translation with Chris Beckett, Frances Leviston and Fiona Sze-Lorrain (3pm, free) and John Hegley helps launch the 2012 Keats Anthology (5pm, free).
Tracey Thorn (7.45pm, £10) is the big draw of today’s London Literature Festival; Claire Tomalin draws parallels between Charles Dickens and Queen Victoria (6.30pm, £10), China Miéville in conversation (8pm, £10), Simon Garfield presents a London special On The Map (6pm, £8), Rachel Lichtenstein reveals Hatton Garden (12pm, £8) and Leo Hollis talks cities (2pm, £8).
Maureen Duffy and Cicely Herbert are the readers at Torriano Poetry (7.30pm, £5 / £3).
Monday 3 June: At the London Literature Festival take a whistle stop tour of six centuries of poetry about London (6.30pm, free), Kate Mosse chairs a Women’s Prize and Grazia evening on getting published (8pm, £10) and Claire Tomalin finishes her lecture series with Mary Wollstonecraft (6.30pm, £10).
Simon Armitage, Frieda Hughes, Paul Stephenson, Huw Warren and Stuart Silver are among the guests at Coffee House Poetry (8pm, £8 / £7).
Rebecca Solnit is at Kings Place discussing The Faraway Nearby (7pm, £9.50).
Season Butler, Shaun Levin, Amy Neilson Smith and Michael Darling are at erotic literary soiree Velvet Tongue (7.30pm, £5 / £3).
Paul Davey presents a slideshow of This is What Democracy Looks Like at Exiled Writers Ink at the Poetry Cafe (7.30pm, £4 / £2), along with Fiona Sze-Lorrain, Adnan Al-Seyegh, Chinwe Azubuike and Taku Mukiwa.
Tuesday 4 June: Rachel Lichtenstein, Cathi Unsworth and Lisa Gee talk about the London Fictions collection at the London Review Bookshop (7pm, £7).
Brendan Simms gives us an overview of Europe’s struggle for supremacy since 1453, at Daunt Books Cheapside (6.30pm, £5).
Over at the Southbank Centre for the London Literature Festival: teachers at the School of the Spoken Word, Dean Atta, Raymond Antrobus and others (6pm, £8), Zimbabwean writer NoViolet Bulawayo on her novel We Need New Names (6.30pm, £8), and Jo Shapcott introduces Poetry Parnassus focusing on Armenian, Gun, Spanish and English (6.30pm, £8).
Julie Myerson’s supernatural novella The Quickening is the subject of her visit to West End Lane Books (7.30pm, free, book ahead).
Lucy Lethbridge, Anna Whitelock and Kate Worsley discuss the relationships between servants and their masters and mistresses, at the Bloomsbury Institute (6.30pm, £10 / £6).
Niall O’Sullivan hosts the Poetry Cafe‘s weekly open mic night Poetry Unplugged (7.30pm, £5 / £4).
Wednesday 5 June: Richard Holmes charts the pioneering balloon aeronauts in Falling Upwards. Hear about their exploits at Daunt Books Marylebone (7pm, £8).
Holly Hopkins, Malika Booker, Chris McCabe, Karen McCarthy Woolf and Kirsten Irving read at the launch of Rain of Poems at the Southbank Centre (6.30pm, £8).
Thomas Keneally, author of Schindler’s Ark, is in conversation with Susannah Herbert at the 20th Century Theatre in aid of First Story (7.15pm, £20).
The Dash Cafe, English PEN and the British Ukrainian Society present Oksana Zabuzhko at Rich Mix (7.30pm, free).
Follow @LondonistLit for our pick of that day’s literary events.