Author appearances, poetry and spoken word events in London this week
The Story Of St Katharine’s launches. Details below.
Plan Ahead
Your chance to see Keats’s letters on display at Keats House is running out, as the exhibition closes on 27 April. Free, with admission to the house.
Festivals
Cityread London 2014 takes place throughout April, with events including workshops, quizzes, film screenings, competitions and more. See the website for events schedule.
Thursday 24 April
NOVEL LAUNCH: Orange Prize shortlisted author Kamila Shamsie discusses her new novel, A God in Every Stone, with her editor Alexandra Pringle at Bloomsbury Publishing in Bedford Square. £25/£10, prebook, 6.30pm
IRISH POETRY: Five contemporary Irish poets will be reading their work at London Irish Centre this evening, including Deirdre Shanahan and Michael McKimm. Free, prebook, 7pm
NOVEL CONVERSATION: Novelists Alice Greenway and Rebecca Hunt are in conversation at Lutyens & Rubinstein, both having released their second novels. Greenway’s The Bird Skinner is a story of lost love and rebirth, while Hunt’s Everland is the story of two Antarctic expeditions, a century apart. £8, prebook, 7pm
MATHS BOOK: At Daunt Books in Marylebone, Alex Bellos talks about his latest book of mathematical discovery, Alex Through The Looking Glass. £8, prebook, 7pm
MAGAZINE LAUNCH: Ambit magazine hosts the launch of Ambit 216 at The Sun and 13 Cantons, with readings from James Brookes, Tim Dooley, Jacqueline Saphra and Navid Hamzavi. £5, just turn up, 7pm
POETRY AND PROTEST: Head to Rich Mix for an evening of poetry and music celebrating how literature and activism can come together. Featuring poets James Byrne, Sophie Mayer and more. With an open mic, and a panel discussion. £5/£3, prebook, 7.30pm
SPOKEN WORD: The Albany in Deptford hosts Chill Pill: The Big One, a spoken word night featuring 2012 Dickens Young Writer in Residence, Femi Martin, and many other performance poets. Followed by a live DJ set continuing into the wee hours. £9/£6, prebook, 7.30pm
STAND-UP POETRY: Bang Said The Gun‘s weekly stand-up poetry shindig takes place at The Roebuck in Borough and this week features Kat Francois and Zia Ahmed. £7/£5, just turn up, 8pm
POETRY VS COMEDY: Poetry Cafe hosts Stand Up And Slam. See spoken word and poetry go head to head with comedy. The audience decides the outcome. £8, prebook, 8pm
Friday 25 April
FOURTH FRIDAY: Today is Fourth Friday at the Poetry Cafe, hosted by Hylda Sims. £7/£5, just turn up, 8pm
Saturday 26 April
ZOO POETRY: This weekend, ZSL London Zoo hosts it’s first poetry workshop of the season. The course is led by poets Pascale Petit and Astrid Alben, and includes a chance to visit some of the zoo’s animals including pygmy hippos, tigers, seahorses and Komodo dragons. £200, prebook, 26-27 April
POETRY BUTCHER: Get some feedback on your poetry at Southbank Centre with Poetry Butcher Clare Pollard dissecting your work. Free, prebook a session, from 12pm
WORD FACTORY: April’s Word Factory Salon at Waterstones Piccadilly involve writers Nicholas Royle and KJ Orr reading from their new work, and AL Kennedy will be in conversation about her writing with Cathy Galvin £12/£8, prebook, 6pm
PERIODICAL LAUNCH: Head to Housman’s bookstore for the launch of the second issue of HYSTERIA, a non-profit radical feminist periodical. Free, just turn up, 6.30pm
PERFORMANCE STORYTELLING: Crick Crack Club’s latest Rich Mix event, Shifter, features storytelling by Afro-Caribbean expert Jan Blake and TUUP (The Unorthodox, Unprecedented Preacher). £9/£7, prebook, 7.30pm
LUKE WRIGHT: Poet Luke Wright performs a collection of his best work at Southbank Centre £10, prebook, 7.45pm
Sunday 27 April
TORRIANO POETS: After the Easter break. Torriano Poets are back. This week’s Sunday Poetry Reading at Torriano Meeting House features Viv Fogel, Tracey Martin and Geraldine Paine, with music from Liz Hanns. £5/£4, just turn up, 7.30pm
Monday 28 April
ST KATHARINE’S: Christopher West will be talking about, and signing copies of, his new book, The Story of St Katharine’s which covers the history of the docks. Takes place on the Thames barge, Lady Daphne, on the pontoon in West Dock, close to International House. £5, prebook, 5.45pm
FOODIE: Restaurateur and food writer Bill Granger launches his new cookbook, Bill’s Italian Food, at Waterstone’s Piccadilly. £5/£3, prebook, 6.30pm
LONDON FICTION: London Historical Fiction Book Group‘s April meet-up centres around Patricia Bracewell’s Shadow On The Crown. Takes place at the bar in Waterstones Piccadilly. Free, just turn up, 6.45pm
WRITING SHOWCASE: Members of Apples and Snakes Writing Room take to the stage at Rich Mix for the Showcase, performing their work. Free, just turn up, 7pm
NAKED CINEMA: London Review Bookshop hosts the launch of Sally Potter’s book, Naked Cinema, which gives an insight into directing for the camera. £10, prebook, 7pm
LGBT WRITING: Philip Hensher reads from his new novel The Emperor Waltz, at Southbank Centre. The event, Polari salon, provides a platform for new and emerging LGBT literary talent and showcases the very best in queer writing. £5, prebook, 7.45pm
Tuesday 29 April
EMOTIONAL POETRY: The National Theatre hosts Poems That Make Grown Men Cry, readings from an anthology of poems which 100 men confess have made a lasting impression on them. Followed by a book signing. In collaboration with Amnesty International. £4/£3, prebook, 6pm *please note that this event is now sold out*
POETRY WORKSHOP: Poet and musician Simon Pomery hosts a poetry workshop for adults at Parasol unit in Islington. £5/£6, prebook, 6pm
WAR POETRY: Biographer Guy Cuthbertson discusses the work of war poet Wilfred Owen at Waterstone’s Piccadilly. Free, prebook, 6.30pm
BUSES: Travis Elborough, author of The Bus We Loved, is at London Transport Museum to celebrate the 60th anniversary of one of London’s most enduring symbols, the Routemaster bus. £10, prebook, 6.30pm
CRIME FICTION: British crime fiction writers Tom Rob Smith and Mark Billingham head to Lutyens & Rubinstein to discuss their new novels, The Farm, and The Bones Beneath. £8, prebook, 7pm
IRANIAN THRILLER: To celebrate the launch of A Good Place To Die, author James Buchan is in conversation with Michael Axworthy at Daunt Books in Marylebone. £8, prebook, 7pm
NORDIC NOVEL: Nordic author Jo Nesbo discusses his third Harry Hole novel, The Redbreast, at King’s Place. Hosted by John Mullan. £9.50/£11.50, prebook, 7pm
BOOK BARGE: Hear from Sarah Henshaw, owner of the Book Barge, at Big Green Bookshop. She launches her book, The Bookshop that Floated Away, which chronicles her time taking the barge around the country’s waterways. Free, just turn up, 7pm
SPOKEN WORD: BoxPark in Shoreditch hosts BoxedIn, an evening of spoken word performances. Free, just turn up, 7pm
HUMAN BODY: Anthropoetry at Rich Mix is a night of poetry and music led by BBC R4 Slam Champion Ben Mellor, looking at how we refer to the human body in modern life. £7/£5, prebook, 7.30pm
POETRY UNPLUGGED: The Poetry Cafe hosts Poetry Unplugged, a weekly open mic night. Anyone is welcome to sign up. £5/£4, just turn up, 7.30pm
BOOK TALK: Persephone Books’ founder Nicola Beauman visits West End Lane Books to talk about the industry. Free, prebook, 7.30pm
Wednesday 30 April
INTERNATIONAL LITERATURE: Foyles on Charing Cross Road hosts the launch of the new World Bookshelf, an online gateway to international literature. The evening includes talks from Elif Shafak, Nikita Lalwani and Frank Wynne. Free, prebook, 6.30pm
APARTHEID BOOK TALK: At Housman’s, Alan Wieder discusses his new book ‘Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War to End Apartheid’, the first extended biography of the husband and wife who committed their lives to the war to end apartheid in South Africa. £3, prebook, 7pm
BOOK SWAP: Head to the Great Northern Railway Tavern on Hornsey High Street for Big Green Bookshop‘s book swap, with comic book authors Mike Carey and Joel Meadows. Bring along a book to swap. £3, prebook, 7.30pm
Follow @LondonistLit for our pick of that day’s literary events.