London events for book lovers

This week it seems like all the literary world is talking about Book Expo America. But New York isn't the only place that holds events for book lovers. Here are a couple of different ones coming up in London...

London Literature Festival at Southbank Centre
This is a long-running event (it doesn't finish until September 8), and there's something going on for everyone at the London Literature Festival - poetry, fiction, talks, debates.

Among the highlights is an event on June 4, when the festival hosts the Women's Prize for Fiction Shortlist Readings. Now in its 18th year, the Women's Prize for Fiction, formerly known as the Orange Prize for Fiction, was set up to celebrate excellence, originality and accessibility in writing by women throughout the world. The June 4 events sees the six shortlisted authors reading and discussing their work.

The Women's Prize for Fiction shortlist:

Hilary Mantel, Bring Up the Bodies
Barbara Kingsolver, Flight Behaviour
Kate Atkinson, Life After Life
A.M. Homes, May We Be Forgiven
Zadie Smith, NW
Maria Semple, Where'd You Go, Bernadette

Poems on the Underground
Literature isn't to be confined to lecture halls and hushed grand libraries, and Poems on the Underground is a great example of what literature should be - accessible to all.

The next set of poems go live next month, so keep an eye out on Tube trains across the London Underground network, and make sure to note down your favourite poems (and let me know which you like).

Books NOT Books
We all know there is so much more to the world of books than just words on a page, and the Books NOT Books exhibition, hosted by the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association (ABA) explores that.

Held in the National Exhibition Hall at Olympia in west London from June 13 to June 15, Books NOT Books shows the book in a variety of different forms - books as art, books as boxes, books as anything-other-than-books – whether it is a handbag, pin box or biscuit tin.

What book-related events are you looking forward to?