Saturday November 14 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
SPAM Press presents: Fuse Box: Triple Sonnet Crown by Sam Rodilosso
w/ readings from Luke Roberts & K Lewis Hood
Join us for a collaborative event with SPAM Press, in celebration of Sam Rodilosso’s debut poetry book, Fuse Box: Triple Sonnet Crown. There will be readings from K Lewis Hood, Luke Roberts and Sam, followed by a Q&A between Sam and Maria Sledmere.
‘“Fuse” may be one of my favorite crowns of all time-it as technically as close to perfection as any example of the form that I know. Sam Rodilosso proves himself a brilliant poet, even now, at the beginning of the journey.’ — David Keplinger
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About the book:
‘The sonnet is a fuse box’ in which ‘Lyricism | Wakes up in a cold sweat’. Welcome to Sam Rodilosso’s debut poetry book, a 60pp fury which takes on ‘America’s Monster Project’ and the polycrisis of our current, dilapidating epoch with intelligence and spirit. Fuse Box believes in the power of children to ‘make defence’ against ‘time’s scythe’ and mortality in general. Imagination is amplified by influence. As futurity collapses around us, Rodilosso registers the damage of the present in every iamb of the sonnet’s ornate circuitry, entwined in a triple crown of fuse / engrams / spectacle. This is a poetics of overload and what-the-fuckery, a poetics of voltaic leap and conscientious noticing, digital compression and confession. Fuse Box joins a global choir of people singing against extractivism, exploitation, hyper-militarism and neoliberal fascisms; it scintillates with the meltpoint of a crayola-drawn sun. Fuelled by his father’s saying, I love you Sam, I am time travelling through you, the poet evinces an unwavering refusal of capitalist foreclosures and moves headlong towards a loving future.
OUR POETS AND OUR PRESS:
Born and raised on the Chesapeake Bay in Annapolis, Maryland, Sam Rodilosso studied International Relations and Creative Writing at American University in Washington D.C. before transferring to the University of Edinburgh to study English Literature. Since then, he has received a certification to teach English from Cambridge University, and has studied Chinese at Peking University. Sam is interested in the prospects of translation and global literary exchange.
Luke Roberts is the author of Bad Omens (2026), Home Radio (2021), Glacial Decoys (2021) and other works of poetry and prose. Beginning to End will be published in 2027 by Nightboat Books.
K Lewis Hood is a writer from the East Midlands, currently living on the water in East London. Their poetry publications include Glitch Almanac, an artist book with Martina O’Brien, Bugbear (Veer2, 2021), and infra·structure, with Maria Sledmere (Broken Sleep Books, 2020). With Pratyusha, they co-edited the online ecopoetry journal amberflora. They teach English and Creative Writing at Queen Mary University of London.
Maria Sledmere is managing editor at SPAM Press and a senior lecturer in English & Creative Writing at the University of Strathclyde. Her most recent publications are the ekphrastic pamphlet Scar Code (Weather Band, 2026), and I don’t have things to tell you (Strange Region, 2026), an epistolary collaboration with Mau Baiocco.
SPAM Press CIC is a Glasgow and London-based small poetry press, publisher, magazine and purveyor of literary reading series, established in 2016. It is run by editors Kirsty Dunlop, Maria Sledmere and Maya Uppal.
This is a free event, but please RSVP below. Please also feel free to BYOB!