A selection of bookshop readings, performances, literary lunches, salons, festivals and other writerly goings-on are listed here and regularly updated.
For your wider literary and cultural fix, check out the in-person and virtual event listings at the British Library, the London Review Bookshop, Waterstones, English PEN, the Southbank Centre, publisher and author websites and social media streams, as well as those of your local organisations and venues.
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Tuesday 21 July
Deb Olin Unferth in conversation with Jon Doyle
Daunt Books, 83-84 Marylebone High Street, London W1U 4QW
7pm
£12
Deb Olin Unferth’s astonishing new novel Earth 7 introduces us to two women, one raised in near solitude in a research pod in the depths of the ocean and one a luxury-resort bartender who may or may not be a robot. They fall in love, cross deserts, gaze at the stars – and try not only to hold onto one another but together, possibly, salvage some trace of planet Earth. Heartbreaking, mind-expanding, soaring with beauty, Earth 7 is at once a love letter to the world and a portrait of its slow disappearance. It’s about love and grief, microbiology and astrophysics, robots and planet Mars, and humanity in all its greatness, absurdity and distress. It is the novel we need right now, and for all times. Deb discusses her incredible book with fellow author Jon Doyle.
More info and book
Read our interview with Deb about her previous novel Barn 8
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to Tuesday 28 July
The Conversation 2026 Summer Season: Beyond Algorithms. Beyond Orthodoxy. Real Insight for a Just World
St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 4JJ
7 pm to 8:30 pm
£10 in-person or live stream + £3.95 booking fee
The Conversation, held in the atmospheric Crypt of St Martin-in-the-Fields, explores social justice and how we imagine the world with curiosity, knowledge and wisdom – a humane intelligence that values insight and understanding over news and information. The interviews take place live and online, chaired by series director Peter Florence, Caitlin McNamara and Sam Wells. They last an hour followed by a 30-minute public Q&A, then a book-signing and informal conversation.
Tuesday 14 July
Janina Ramirez: Legenda
Tuesday 28 July
Andrea Wulf: The Traveller – The Revolutionary Life of George Forster and His Search for Humanity
More info and book
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Ongoing
Arvon courses and retreats
Online or in-person, from one hour at home to five weeks at historic writers’ houses in Devon, Shropshire and Yorkshire, you can find inspiration, support and transform your writing with Arvon. Discover a range of creative writing courses and events for writers of any genre and any level of experience.
Residential courses for Spring/Summer 2026 include Starting to Write with Tice Cin, Ralf Webb and Ashley Hickson-Lovence (Totleigh Barton, 15 to 20 June); The Craft of Character-Driven Fiction with Freya North, Matt Cain and Clare Pooley (The Hurst, 22 to 27 June); Writing Lives with John Grindrod, Lamorna Ash and Matt Morgan (Totleigh Barton, 13 to 18 July); Writing the World Through a Queer Lens with Nathan Evans and Santanu Bhattacharya (The Hurst, 13 to 16 July); and Inspiration, Support and Time to Write with Ben Pester, Kaiya Shang and Karolina Sutton (Totleigh Barton, 25 July to 1 August).
More info and book
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