Morgan Talty, author of Fire Exit, in conversation with Michelle Ajodah [06/03/24]

Porter Square Books is thrilled to welcome Morgan Talty for the release of his novel Fire Exit! PSB Writer in Residence Michelle Ajodah will join Talty in conversation. This event will take place on Monday, June 3 at 7pm at Porter Square Books (25 White St. Cambridge, MA 02140).

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ABOUT FIRE EXIT

The blood that came out of me was blood that ran through her veins. It’s strange: all bloodlooks the same, yet it’s different, we’re told, in so many various ways and for so many various reasons. But one thing is for certain, I thought: you are who you are, even if you don’t know it.

From the porch of his home, Charles Lamosway has watched the life he might have had unfold across the river on Maine’s Penobscot Reservation. On the far bank, he caught brief moments of his neighbor Elizabeth’s life—from the day she came home from the hospital to her early twenties. But there’s always been something deeper and more dangerous than the river that divides him from her and the rest of the tribal community. It’s the secret that Elizabeth is his daughter, a secret Charles is no longer willing to keep.

Now, it’s been weeks since he’s seen Elizabeth, and Charles is worried. As he attempts to hold on to and care for what he can—his home and property; his alcoholic, quick-tempered, and bighearted friend Bobby; and his mother, Louise, who is slipping ever deeper into dementia—

he becomes increasingly haunted by his past. Forced to confront a lost childhood on the reservation, a love affair cut short, and the death of his beloved stepfather, Fredrick, in a hunting accident—a death he and Louise are at odds over as to where to lay blame—Charles contends with questions he’s long been afraid to ask. Is his secret about Elizabeth his to share? And would his daughter want to know the truth, even if it could cost her everything she’s ever known?

From the award-winning author of Night of the Living Rez, Morgan Talty’s debut novel, Fire Exit, is a masterful and unforgettable story of family, legacy, bloodlines, culture and inheritance, and what, if anything, we owe one another.

PRAISE FOR FIRE EXIT

"Utterly consuming. With Talty’s subtle charm and crystalline prose. . . . Fire Exit absolutely smolders." — Tommy Orange

"Gorgeous. . . . I loved it." — Brandon Taylor

"Talty’s writing is a gift of many lifetimes." — Karen Russell

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Morgan Talty is a citizen of the Penobscot Indian Nation. His debut short story collection, Night of the Living Rez, won the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Sue Kaufman Prize, the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize, the New England Book Award, the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 Honor, and was a finalist for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award, and The Story Prize. His writing has appeared in The Georgia Review, Granta, Shenandoah, TriQuarterly, Narrative, Lit Hub, and elsewhere. Talty is an assistant professor of English in Creative Writing and Native American and Contemporary Literature at the University of Maine, Orono, and he is on the faculty at the Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing as well as the Institute of American Indian Arts. He lives in Levant, Maine.

Michelle Ajodah is a writer and creative professional based in Somerville, MA. Originally from Larchmont, NY, she moved to New England to earn a BFA in Writing, Literature & Publishing from Emerson College and an MLA in Creative Writing & Literature from the Harvard Extension School. She is a 2024 Writer-in-Residence at Porter Square Books and an alumna of GrubStreet's Novel Generator program. Her writing centers on ritual and myth in Guyanese families like her own.

Morgan Talty, author of Fire Exit, in conversation with Michelle Ajodah

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