Illustration by Oona Grimes of Iain Sinclair’s Hackney Harpoon poem. See more at the Southbank Centre.
Thursday 8 August
Poet Niall O’Sullivan looks at the 12 months that contained the Jubilympics, aftermath of the riots, the birth of his first child and the Essex lion, at Camden Fringe. Head for The Sheephaven Bay until Sunday (7.30pm, £7.50 / £5.50).
Benin City, led by Joshua Idehen, perform at Birthdays in Dalston for a night from Clash Magazine (7.30pm, £5 / £7).
Head to Waterstones Leadenhall Market for an informal Q&A with SF author Adrian Tchaikovsky (6.30pm, free).
Friday 9 August
Judith Cair, Mandy Pannet, Andie Lewenstein, Celia Dixie, Penny Hope and Margaret Wilmot perform at Green Room Poets at the Poetry Cafe (7pm, free).
Fran Isherwood hosts Poetry Jam at the Tea Box in Richmond. Expect mail stealing snails, insomnia and macabre part time jobs (7pm, free).
There’s a poetry double bill with Lynn Davidson and Briar Wood from Birkbeck’s New Zealand Studies Network (6pm, free).
Saturday 10 August
John Hegley and guests have Elevenses at the Poetry Cafe (11am, £6 / £5).
Jeremy Sallon, Tom Bland, Errol McGlashan and Benedict Newbery perform alongside open mic acts at Platform 1 at the Poetry Cafe (8pm, £5 / £4).
Sunday 11 August
Go see the exhibition about Iain Sinclair’s new poem Hackney Harpoon with illustrations from Oona Grimes (pictured), at the Southbank Centre (Tue-Sun until 15 September, 11am-8pm, free).
Monday 12 August
Tall Lighthouse presents an open mic night at the Poetry Cafe (7.30pm, free).
Tuesday 13 August
Sabrina Mahfouz hosts a night where talented young poets perform their new work, at Rich Mix (7pm, free).
Fresh from the Camden Fringe earlier in the week, Niall O’Sullivan hosts Poetry Unplugged, the weekly open mic night at the Poetry Cafe (7.30pm, £5 / £4).
Lonely Planet co-founder Tony Wheeler is at Waterstones Piccadilly talking about his book Darklands (6.30pm, free but reserve in advance).
Wednesday 14 August
It’s heat one of the Roundhouse Poetry Slam. Judges John Berkavitch, Daniel Cockrill, Stephanie Dogfoot, Zena Edwards, Kat Francois and Polarbear assess some of the country’s best young performance poets (7.30pm, £4).
Salena Godden, Rachel Rose Reid, Robin Ince and Omar are Tongue Fu‘s guests at London Wonderground on the South Bank, introduced by Chris Redmond (9.15pm, £12.50).
Anne Stevenson and Ruth O’Callaghan launch new poetry collections at Bookmarks in Bloomsbury (6.30pm).
Agnes Meadow hosts Loose Muse, for women writers of all genres, at the Poetry Cafe (8pm, £5 / £3).
Waterstones Piccadilly launches its first Russian Book of the Month, which is The Spectre of Alexander Wolf by Gaito Gazdanov. Hear a panel of experts including the novel’s translator, Bryan Karetnyk, talk about it (6.30pm, £5 / £3).
Also at Waterstones Piccadilly, children’s authors RJ Palacio, Laura Jarrett and Sally Gardner discuss how they celebrate difference in their novels (6.30pm, £5 / £3).
Eve Harris is at Waterstones Hampstead talking about her Booker longlisted novel The Marrying of Chani Kaufman (7pm, £5).
Follow @LondonistLit for our pick of that day’s literary events.