In the quiet suburbs, while Dorothy is doing chores and waiting for her husband to come home from work, not in the least anticipating romance, she hears a strange radio announcement about a monster who has just escaped from the Institute for Oceanographic Research…

Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls is a quiet, bizarre masterpiece, like a Richard Yates novel adapted into a B-movie. Heralded by Ursula K. Le Guin, John Updike, and Joyce Carol Oates, the novel has been passed around writers’ hands since its original publication in 1982. Now finally back in print, Ingalls’s “totally unforgettable” ( New York Times) and “something of a miracle” (New Yorker) novel is poised to be cherished by another generation of readers.

Rivka Galchen (Little Labors) and Christine Smallwood will discuss the novel, followed by Galchen and Hampton Fancher (Blade Runner, Blade Runner 2049) reading an excerpt of Fancher’s screenplay adaptation of Mrs. Caliban.

Rivka Galchen’s 2008 first novel Atmospheric Disturbances and her 2014 story collection American Innovations were both New York Times Best Books of the Year. Her latest book is Little Labors, out with New Directions. She has received many awards as well as an MD from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Galchen lives in New York City.

Hampton Fancher is an actor, dancer, writer, and director known for _Blade Runner, The Minus Man,_and most recently Blade Runner 2049. His short story collection, The Shape of the Final Dog, was published in 2012. Fancher is the subject of the documentary Escapes, directed by Michael Almereyda and produced by Wes Anderson.

Christine Smallwood writes the “New Books” column for Harper’s Magazine. Her fiction has been published in The Paris Review, n+1, and Vice.