The title butterfly-shaped mol-ecule, C(11)H(6)N(2)O(2), is folded slightly along the O=C⋯C=O line, the dihedral angle between the two parts being 6.42 (3)°. In the crystal, adjacent mol-ecules are linked through C-H⋯O hydrogen bonds into infinite layers parallel to the ac plane. The layers are further connected into a three-dimensional netweork via π-π inter-actions formed between pairs of anti-parallel arranged mol-ecules, with a centroid-centroid distance between the central six-membered ring and the benzene ring of 3.4349 (9) Å.