Author appearances, poetry and spoken word events in London this week
Thursday 20 June: Actual Jesse Armstrong of actual Peep Show is the headliner at Invisible Dot’s Stories spoken word night, along with Tim Clare, Jessie Cave and Adrian Crowley (7.45pm, £8).
Grab the remaining tickets for this fundraiser for Josie Long’s Arts Emergency Service with comedians and writers like Joe Dunthorne, Kate Tempest and Tim Key, at Hackney Empire (8pm, £20 / £10).
Hadley Freeman’s talking about Be Awesome at Foyles (6.30pm, £5).
How can we resist an event whose blurb quotes us? Mark Mason and Andrew Martin talk about their tube-related books at Belgravia Books (6.30pm, free).
Luke Wright and GREEdS are the invited poets for Bang Said the Gun at The Roebuck (8pm, £7 / £5).
Litro brings Polish writers and musicians to The Betjemen Arms in St Pancras (6pm, free).
Readers from South Bank Poetry’s new London and Urban Ireland issue include Benedict Newbery, Richard Purnell, Jasmine Ann Cooray and Joe Duggan, at the Poetry Cafe (8pm, £5.50 / £4.50).
Crime writers Christina James, Laura Ellen Joyce and Matthew Pritchard read from and talk about their books at Waterstones Gower Street (6.30pm, £5 / £3).
Friday 21 June: Brent’s poet laureate Simon Mole and guests Inua Ellams, John Agard and Warsan Shire perform at Brent Civic Centre for Wembley Wordfest (7pm, free but book ahead).
Jeffrey Deaver is signing copies of his latest Lincoln Rhyme thriller at Waterstones Leadenhall Market from 12.30pm, and later talking about the book at Waterstones Piccadilly (7pm, £5 / £3).
Farrago‘s summer solstice SLAM features Anna Chen, Greta Bellamacina, Anna Kahn, Sean Wai Keung, Dudley Sutton, Oli Forsyth and Matthew Cuban, at the RADA Foyer Bar (7.30pm, £6 / £5).
Saturday 22 June: There’s an embarrassment of literary riches down Charing Cross Road for its eponymous festival, all for free: try Laura Dockrill at 11.30am, Horrible Histories author Terry Deary at 2pm, Jazzman John Clarke at 4pm; or if you want just one recommendation you absolutely have to see Evie Wyld and Liars’ League at Foyles (4.30pm).
Proms at St Jude’s festival’s literary programme today features Tim Smit (11am), Susan Greenfield and Alok Jha (2pm), Kate Atkinson and Erica Wagner (4pm) and Michael Holroyd and Sue MacGregor (5.30pm). All tickets £8.50.
Sunday 23 June: Back in Charing Cross Road, hear Jane Peyton on Brilliant Britain (2pm) and a feminism debate at Blackwell’s (1pm).
In Hampstead Garden Suburb for Proms at St Jude’s, Antonio Carluccio talks to Giles Coren (12.30pm), Sandra Howard to Penny Smith (2pm), Simon Garfield on maps or fonts or both (3.30pm) and Edward Stourton rounds things up with Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner (5pm). Tickets £8.50.
Learn not to judge a book by its cover at Feed & Read at Bearspace Gallery, while stuffing yourself with cake (12-4pm, free).
Monday 24 June: Robert Twigger is your source (BOOM!) for all things Nile at Daunt Books in Marylebone (7pm, £8).
Daunt Books has also sorted out this event with Gillian Tindall unpicking the lives of three houses, including a London Jacobean one, at St Peter’s Church in Belsize Square (7pm, £5).
Help Foyles plan their new Charing Cross Road store (6.30pm, free but book ahead).
Acclaimed Persian poets Azita Ghahreman (translated by Maura Dooley), Reza Mohammadi (translated by Nick Laird) and Shakila Azizzada (translated by Mimi Khalvati, who can’t be at the event but Sarah Maguire will ably take her place) will read alongside their UK poet-translators at Foyles (7pm, free but book ahead).
Wendy Shutler has songs for the summer solstice at the Poetry Cafe (8pm, £5 / £4).
Tuesday 25 June: Katerina Cosgrove launches her novel Bone Ash Sky at Belgravia Books (6.30pm, free).
Glen Peters launches Lucknow Ransom at Asia House; there’ll be curry involved (6.30pm, free).
Niall O’Sullivan hosts the weekly open mic night at the Poetry Cafe (7.30pm, £5 / £4).
Wednesday 26 June: Sarah Pinborough and Alison Littlewood are guests at the Big Green Bookshop‘s Bookswap at the Great Northern Railway Tavern (7.30pm, £5).
William Dalrymple talks about Return of a King, his account of the First Afghan War, at the Bloomsbury Institute (6pm, £30 with book, £10 ticket only). *PLEASE NOTE THIS EVENT HAS NOW BEEN CANCELLED*
GREEdS hosts Jawdance at Rich Mix, plus Dominique Chestand, Paloma Heindorff, and Scratchcard & Readymeal (7.30pm, free).
Book ahead: Superb Scandicrime novelist Henning Mankell talks to Mark Lawson about his work at the London Review Bookshop on 28 June (7pm, £7).
Follow @LondonistLit for our pick of that day’s literary events.