If there's a novel inside every one of us, it's useful to have a way to worm it out. Not all of us are dedicated enough to bang it out in a month and some of us are too chicken to go on an academic course. We need something, though, as day dreaming on the bus and getting distracted by the telly are not helping. So, after encountering one Jasmine Cooray reading a poem......

Heartbroken in Hammersmith? Isolated in Islington? Pissed in Putney? Put your virtual pen to paper at Spread the Word's City of Shared Stories project, which features hundreds of short stories about the capital. Go and bask in the healing power of creative writing. It's so much more wholesome than getting drunk at the pub quiz and dribbling on yourself on the N38 to Walthamstow Central. Though that could make a good story, couldn't it.......

Yet another reason our love runs deep for literary London: this happy little subculture is as diverse as the city itself. On offer this week is an eclectic mixture ranging from an Asian literature festival, to a panel discussion of the utility of creative writing courses, to a talk with a well-known American memoirist. As always, the difficulty is in choosing which events we just can’t bear to miss. Monday: Blame last week’s summer-like......

Just out the Van: Next Monday's From Jane Austen to Catherine Tate: The Rise of the Female Comic Writer brings together a panel, including Shazia Mirza, Marina Lewycka and Stella Duffy, to unpick the funny bone of women's writing - how does it differ from men's writing? Is it funnier, gentler or crueller? Are there universal jokes that women laugh at worldwide? And does it ultimately change anything? Monday 4th June, 7.45pm, £8.50, Purcell......

The Londonist Literary List appears every Tuesday. If you'd like to bring an event to our attention, please email londonistlit@gmail.com. Those of us with an addiction to lists may have looked on folornly at this recent compilation of no less than 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die - but it did make us think of a drinking game to play. It includes a shot glass, a bottle of cheap vodka, three pairs......

Much as the incarcerated writers of the Londonist Music Dungeon enjoy relaying our recommendations on music, we can never shake off the mantra murmured to us by our inner voices: 'music writers are failed musicians'. So it's with great pleasure that we start a column written by someone who's a participant in our fair city's music and arts scene, rather than a mere spectator. Introducing Laura Kidd... Amidst the throes of adult chickenpox I......

Good news for all the capital's literary heads. Roehapmton Univiersity is launching an MA in Creative Writing, and to celebrate they have organised a "series of evenings in which acclaimed writers will read from their recent work and discuss their craft". These 'acclaimed writers' include such luminaries as Matt Thorne, Londonist favourite Jon Ronson (pictured), and the fantastic (and very funny) Leone Ross. We're not sure about the whole 'new puritan' thing that Matt......