AFK #12: A SPAM Press Poetry Reading Series

SPAM's free reading series, Away from Keyboard (AFK), returns to Glasgow for October! This event features a special Californian twist, with readers hailing from as far as the Bay Area, Margate and Edinburgh.This event will feature a mixture of words and sounds.

There will be a limited edition zine available, featuring work by our performers.We recommend you arrive from 6:30pm at doors to secure the best seats, but you are more than welcome to drop in and out throughout the evening (there will be two breaks).The line up:Andrew Kenower is a poet, archivist, and photographer based in Berkeley, CA.

He co-chairs the Woolsey Heights reading series with Paul Ebenkamp.Roshni Gallagher is a poet from Leeds living in Edinburgh.

Her debut poetry collection Even the Trees is published by Bloodaxe books and is shortlisted for the Jerwood prize for Best First Collection 2026.

She has an MFA in creative writing Poetry from the University of St Andrews.Poppy Cockburn is a writer based by the sea in Margate.

Her debut poetry book, Naked Oyster, was published by If a Leaf Falls Press in 2025 and commended for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection.

Her second book, Every time I meet you feels like doom, is out now with SARKA.Steve Orth is a writer based in California.

He loves to write about the transformative capabilities of the mundane, i.e. supermarkets.

His books include Lust for Life, The Life & Times of Steve Orth, and Inflatable Ball.Lindsey Boldt is a poet, playwright, editor, and teacher.

She is the author of the books Overboard and Weirding, and several chapbooks including Titties for Lindsey and There Are No Cops in America & The Streets Are Paved w/ Cheese.Her work playfully examines questions of expanded and altered human and non-human perception, the pleasures and pains of embodiment, and the absurd.

She is currently working on a project about The Fool as cross-cultural archetype and source of radical rebellion and resilience.

She is the editorial director of Nightboat Books and has taught poetry workshops in Bay Area public schools, independent workshops on oracular poetry, folk magic, plant medicine, and Poets Theater.

Her third book, Tripper, will be published by City Lights Books in 2027.music by...Kevin Leomo is a Scottish-Filipino sound artist, researcher, and curator.

Kevin is one-half of Project Somnolence with Maria Sledmere and one-third of Tiny Unlabel, a micropublisher exploring tinyness across text, sound, and image.

Kevin Co-Directs of Creatives of Colour and is on the Strategic Advisory Board for the Anti-Racism Observatory for Scotland.

He leads the collective Sound Thought, is a board member for the Scottish Music Centre, and is on the Musicians’ Union Regional Committee for Scotland & Northern Ireland.

Kevin works as the Knowledge Exchange and Public Engagement Specialist for the College of Arts & Humanities, University of Glasgow.Donations: A zine with work by the readers will be available on the night, for a donation towards Target Ovarian Cancer, a cause that is close to SPAM's heart.

From the charity: 'At Target Ovarian Cancer, we target what’s important to stop ovarian cancer devastating lives.

We're the only ovarian cancer charity working across all four nations of the UK.

We work with everyone affected by ovarian cancer and health professionals to ensure we target the areas that matter most for them.'