Peggy Ramback/Anthony Martignetti

Peggy Ramback and C. Anthony Martignetti read from their books:

The Lons

Strange things are growing in Leonard Slinket’s watermelon field. They are as light and small as Wiffle balls, turn smooth and warm, dark, yet luminous, and their vines beat with a pulse. So begins The Lons – short for watermelons – as Slinket, his younger carpenter-friend, John Bigby, and science teacher, Lydia Rice, set out to discover why the lons are here, and what it is that they want, or else, says Leonard, “all hell’s gonna break loose.” Who knows if the lons are good or bad? But there’s no doubting their power and their beauty, their need for each other, and the mystery of their existence. In this story of adventure, loyalty, love, and connection, we come to find that the lons are not much different from us.

Beloved Demons: Confessions of an Unquiet Mind 

In his follow-up to Lunatic Heroes, Martignetti sheds all defenses to reveal the viscera of a mind shaped by the dark and confusing forces of his childhood. This collection of memoirs and essays focuses mainly on Martignetti’s adult years, and features the pivotal characters of his ever-entertaining personal narrative. From the cascade of memories and emotions triggered by an accidental butterfly killing in “Cocoon Talk,” to the homicidal impulses prompted by a visit to his boyhood home in “Sign,” from the heartbreaking to the hilarious musings inspired by beloved pets in “Mochajava” and “Dog,” and throughout the uncensored sexcapades of “Mad,” “The Wild,” and “Feast of the Hungry Ghost,” Martignetti’s colloquial, humorous, and intimate style will keep you riveted, crack you open, enthrall and embrace you with an honesty normally reserved for not even the closest of friends.