ANDREA KLEINE reads from her debut novel CALF, and WALLY RUDOLPH reads from his new novel MIGHTY, MIGHTY

Calf (Soft Skull Press)                  

Mighty, Mighty (Soft Skull Press)

Join us tonight for a fantastic evening from one of our favorite publishers Soft Skull Press! 

The year was 1981. The US was entering a deep recession, Russia was our enemy, and John Hinckley, Jr.'s assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan shocked the nation. It was also the year author Andrea Kleine learned her close childhood friend had been violently murdered by her socialite mother, Leslie DeVeau. Both events took place in Washington, DC. Hinckley and Deveau were both sent to St. Elizabeth's hospital, guilty by reason of insanity. It was there that they met, and later became lovers. These two real-life, and ultimately converging events inspired Klein's jaw-dropping, spine-tingling novel, CALF. Made up of dual narratives and told over the course of one year, Kleine's account follows a fictionalized John Hinkley in the lead-up to the assassination attempt, and Tammy, older sister to Steffi, the best friend of DeVeau's daughter, Kirin. Part Are You There God, It's Me Margaret and part Taxi Driver, this creepy, unsettling, and absolutely addictive novel shines a light on two terrible events, providing an unflinching depiction of violence, both intimate and sensational.

Praise for Calf

"In 1981, John Hinckley, Jr.'s attempt to assassinate Ronald Reagan rocked the nation. And Andrea Kleine's gripping novel,Calf will rock readers. This is a wonderfully unsettling book about love, loss, and unlikely connections." -- Elliott Holt, author of You Are One of Them

Wally Rudolph's Mighty, Mighty is a modern day fable set in a crumbling metropolis riddled with urban poverty and violence.

Dirty apartments, tattoo parlors, food kitchens - these are the markers of home for the struggling young adults around Chicago. Stefy is an artist at Ghost Town, the local tattoo shop, trying to provide for her younger sister Amanda and their ailing grandfather. Amanda is hoping for something better, seeking to escape a past riddled with addiction and an abusive relationship with Georgie. When he confronts her one drunken night at a dive bar, the situation turns violent: Amanda barely escapes with her life but Georgie lies dead on the bathroom floor. This one mistake puts the two sisters in the crosshairs of Georgie's father, a twisted, corrupt ex-cop now out for revenge over the murder of his son. His quest for vengeance will make the neighborhoods of Chicago tremble, leaving no one untouched. 

Mighty, Mighty is a harsh and realistic look at the struggle of two families desperately trying to get out from under the heavy boot of violence and poverty. Like the works of Richard Price and Dennis Lehane, the novel is a startling and accurate portrait of contemporary urban life.

Andrea Kleine is a writer and performance artist whose work has spanned dance, theater, film, literature, and interdisciplinary projects. She has received five MacDowell Colony fellowships and the New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship award. Her writing has been published in The Los Angeles Review of Books, Everyday Genius, NYFA Current, and on her blog, The Dancers Will Win. Calf is her first novel.

Wally Rudolph is the author of the novels Mighty, Mighty (2015) and Four Corners (2014). His fiction has been published in Milk Money, Lines+Stars, The Brooklyner, and others. A graduate of The Second City Conservatory in Chicago, he now resides with his family in Los Angeles. As an actor, he has appeared in numerous films and TV shows including Sons of Anarchy, Hawaii 5-0, Street Kings, and Bang Bang.