Spoke N Slurred – The Zine, Audition #2

Sunday, 27th July, 2025
5:30pm

A Social Undertaking
25 Gresham St (off Hindley St), Adelaide, SA 5000

Time for the second round of submissions. Spoke N Slurred – The Zine will be a small (A5) old school zine publication. It will be photocopied. Short and sharp will get our attention. So will down and dirty.

We’ve decided to remind you that Paroxysm Press is a publisher that for nearly 30 years has been too stubborn to die. So we want to publish you. Come along to our open mic and leave us a hard copy of your poem(s) to be considered for a limited edition zine that will be launched in October. That gives you 4 opportunities to submit. Poems can be printed or hand written. Kami can’t be fucked with email but kerryn would consider a screenshot. If you can throw down a sketch or 2 on the night they will also be considered.

The theme is PAROXYSM. So dig deep, look at the hard stuff, find the next level down. Then tell us why you’re still here.

Do your RESEARCH. Look at our history on the Paroxysm website, check out our YouTube channel, pop into Dymocks Adelaide, Clarity Records, Streetlight or Page & Turner and have a look at what we have already published, take us out for beers….

FREE entry
Spoken word open mic
Book, cocktail and novelty raffle
Beer special of the night
Paroxysm Press book special of the night

Click here for the Facebook event.

Spoke N Slurred – The Zine, Audition #1

Sunday 29th June 2025
from 5:30pm

A Social Undertaking
25 Gresham St, Adelaide (off Hindley St.)

We’ve decided to remind you that Paroxysm Press is a publisher that for nearly 30 years has been too stubborn to die. So we want to publish you.

Come along to our open mic and leave us a hard copy of your poem(s) to be considered for a limited edition zine that will be launched in October. That gives you 4 opportunities to submit. Poems can be printed or hand written. Kami can’t be fucked with email but Kerryn would consider a screenshot.

If you can throw down a sketch or 2 on the night they will also be considered.

The theme is PAROXYSM. So dig deep, look at the hard stuff, find the next level down. Then tell us why you’re still here.

Do your RESEARCH. Look at our history on the Paroxysm website, check out our YouTube channel, pop into Dymocks Adelaide, Clarity Records, Streetlight or Page & Turner and have a look at what we have already published, take us out for beers….

FREE entry Spoken word open mic
Book, cocktail and novelty raffle
Beer special of the night
Paroxysm Press book special of the night

Click here for the Facebook event.

Spoke N Slurred – all open mic… but with a difference…

Things I Don’t Give A **** About

Sunday 25th May 2025
from 5:30pm

A Social Undertaking
25 Gresham St, Adelaide (off Hindley St.)

Something different for Spoke N Slurred in May…

All open mic, but…

… at least one of two spoken word pieces to be on the theme of ‘Things I Don’t Give A **** About‘.

Now we all know what the **** means. But at the same time feel free to get creative with what YOU want it to mean.

Three open mic performers will be selected at random for one of the following prizes: $50, $20 and a Paroxysm Press publication.

FREE entry spoken word open mic
Book, novelty & cocktail raffle
Paroxysm beer special of the night

Click here for the Facebook event.

A top shelf review of all three of Kami’s novels on Paroxysm Press!

A top shelf review of all three of Kami’s novels published by Paroxysm Press including his latest, FISTS OF LOVE…

from: Another Fifty Two Books – Dann Lennard

Bunk Beds & Chilli Vodka by Kami (Paroxysm Press, 2002)
S.F.&T. by Kami (Paroxysm Press, 2001)
Fists of Love by Kami (Paroxysm Press, 2024)

    It took him 22 years, but Adelaide writer/poet/zinester/friend Campbell “Kami” McInnes finally got around to writing another book. In anticipation of its arrival in the post, I reread his first two releases. Bunk Beds & Chilli Vodka is a (slightly) fictionalized account of the Paroxysm Press crew’s memorable weekend attending the 2001 National Young Writers Festival in Newcastle. Neither young nor sober, the trio caused chaos wherever they went, which makes for a very entertaining read. Helen and I were also at NYWF that weekend – in fact, we make cameo appearances in the book. Reading this Hunter S. Thompson-esque laff-fest brought back lots of fond memories.

    Next up was S.F.&T. (aka Sucked, Fucked and Tattooed), a gritty look at a particular subculture that inhabited the inner-city pub scene in Adelaide back in the 1980s and 90s. I had forgotten much of it, but rereading this take-no prisoners novella, I could identify a few of the characters and venues. There is a semi autobiographical feel to the sordid life of drunken record store owner and fuck-up Jason. S.F.&T. rattles along at a fair clip. Oddly, the book sets itself up for a happy ending (of sorts), then suddenly hits the reader with a gut punch in the last two paragraphs that had me thinking, “Fuck! What just happened?”

    So I moved onto Fists of Love, a sequel to S.F.&T., which sees Jason driving his slightly psycho ex Cindy back to Queensland so she can be with her family. Cindy is dying from cancer and Jason is the only person she can trust to get her home safely. Adventures happen along the way, most notably Jason unexpectedly bumping into his deadbeat dad. Like the first book, the sequel managed to hold my attention throughout. And then came the ending. As I wrote to Kami soon afterwards, “I woke up at 2am and couldn’t sleep for an hour thinking about your book. Fuck you. You got me with that last paragraph before the epilogue, you bastard. Excuse me while I wipe this grit from eyes.”

    Kami remains one of the great underground writers in this country and it is really worth your time picking up all three books at ParoxysmPress.com.

    Get your copy of Fists of Love and other Paroxysm Press titles from Page & Turner in Adelaide. Click here for more info.

    Cover art Red Wallflower.

    Paroxysm pays tribute to Murder Ballads

    Sunday 4th May 2025
    from 6:00pm

    A Social Undertaking
    25 Gresham St, Adelaide, SA 5000

    We don’t resurrect the dead, we write songs about their murders. Join us as we pay tribute to some of the best Murder Ballads from across the ages. From their origins in Olde English through the Appalachian folk traditions to more modern entries in the genre, get your momento mori fix with us at the best little undertaker’s bar in town.


    Featuring:
    Ian Gibbins
    Kami
    Matthew Pankhurst 
    Mei Szetu
    Kerryn Tredrea

    Click here for the Facebook event.

    Kathryn Reese at Spoke N Slurred

    Sunday 27th April 2025
    from 5:30pm

    A Social Undertaking
    25 Gresham St, Adelaide SA 5000, off Hindley St & North Tce

    FREE entry
    Spoken Word OPEN MIC
    Book raffle
    Lotsa booze including a ‘beer of the month’ Spoke N Slurred special thanks to A Social Undertaking.

    Kathryn Reese is a poet living on Peramangk land in Adelaide, South Australia. She works in medical microbiology and enjoys solo road trips, hiking and chasing frogs to record their calls for science. Her poems can be found in The Engine Idling, Epistemic Literary, Kelp Journal and Australian Poetry Journal. She was a winner of the Red Room Poetry’s #30in30 competition & the Heroines Women’s Writing Prize 2024.

    Click here for the Facebook event.

    Photo credit: Jazzman Fechner-Lante

    Pam Makin at Spoke N Slurred

    Sunday 30th March 2025
    from 5:30pm.

    A Social Undertaking
    25 Gresham Street, Adelaide (between Hindley St and North Tce)

    Spoken word OPEN MIC
    FREE entry
    Book raffle
    Booze, booze and more booze

    Pam Makin has been a regular on the Adelaide Spoken Word circuit since 2019 but was writing and performing much earlier. She has had her work published in various journals and anthologies, in print and online. She has had her work rejected by many more. You can find out more about Pam and her writing at pammakin.com.au

    Click here for facebook event.

    Pic by Jazz at Ellipsis Oct 2024.

    Josh Cake at Spoke N Slurred – national tour guest performer

    Sunday 23rd February 2025
    from 5:30pm.

    A Social Undertaking
    25 Gresham Street, Adelaide (between Hindley St and North Tce)

    Spoken word OPEN MIC
    FREE entry
    Book raffle
    Booze, booze and more booze

    Josh Cake was born and raised in Melbourne and now lives in Paris. Josh has published poems in Breakwater Review, Teesta Review, and Cordite. In 2024, Josh performed poetry features in Morocco, France, Germany, Poland, Belgium, England, Scotland, and the US. Josh has won the Peseroff Poetry Prize from the University of Massachusetts, held the number one ranking in Australia’s National Poetry Slam (Slamalamadingdong), and was named the Most Impactful Poet of 2024 by the Australian Enterprise Awards. Josh is currently touring the spoken word album ‘words to regret when i’m better at editing‘.

    https://www.instagram.com/joshcakemusic

    https://www.joshcake.com

    Click here for facebook event.

    Kami at Spoke N Slurred

    Pic: Red Wallflower www.facebook.com/RedWallflower

    Sunday 26 January 2025
    from 5.30pm.

    A Social Undertaking
    25 Gresham Street, Adelaide.

    Kami hits the mic again with extracts from his new novel FISTS OF LOVE & spoken word. For those of you who missed out on the launch this is a great chance to grab the book on the night.

    Spoken word OPEN MIC
    FREE entry
    Book raffle Booze, booze and more booze

    Fists of Love is a story about the violence of love, about the pain it can bring us, both physically and mentally. It is a story of the sacrifices we make, believing we are doing the right thing but never knowing for sure if we are.

    Click here for the Facebook event.

    Click here to see where to buy Fists of Love