Grandfalloon:  Michael Martone Reading

Free

Indiana’s most famous literary trickster, Michael Martone’s writings are perhaps best loved for defamiliarizing everything we thought we know about the Hooiser state and its inhabitants.

At times surreal and sardonic, hilarious and humane, his prose will be the focus of a witty night of readings, roasts, and toasts at the Orbit Room.

Martone’s recent books include “The Complete Writings of Art Smith, the Bird Boy of Fort Wayne,” “Four for a Quarter, Not Normal, Illinois: Peculiar Fiction from the Flyover,” and “Racing in Place: Collages, Fragments, Postcards, Ruins.”

He is also the author of “The Blue Guide to Indiana” and five other books of short fiction including “Fort Wayne Is Seventh on Hitler’s List,” “Safety Patrol,” and “Alive and Dead in Indiana.” His stories and essays have appeared in Harper’s, Esquire, Story, Antaeus, North American Review, Benzene, Epoch, Denver Quarterly, Iowa Review, Third Coast, Shenandoah, Bomb, and other magazines.

Martone has won two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and a grant from the Ingram Merrill Foundation. His stories and essays have appeared and been cited in the Pushcart Prize, The Best American Stories and The Best American Essays anthologies.