Description

In these deftly written stories of the fantastic, Christopher Caldwell unravels the complicities of personhood and gender, slavery and war.

Saints and sailors, scoundrels and surfers.

Caldwells characters appear in contrasting duets-first notes during the initial half, and then again in counterpoint, when the dominoes fall in the second half.

In addition to collecting incredible stories previously published in venues like FIYAH, Strange Horizons, and Uncanny, Call and Response also features the original short story The Lonesome Sea.

advance praise for

CALL AND RESPONSE

Throughout, Caldwell brings his all-Black, mostly queer protagonists to vivid life while exploring the collision of the natural and the supernatural. This stuns.

-Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Call and Response is a great showcase for Christophers particular gift: his sophisticated prose, so changeable from story to story, but always distinctive in voice, playful and masterful in style!

-Kai Ashante Wilson, author of A Taste of Milk and Honey

I am so glad I get to live in the time-space where Christopher Caldwell is creating. And so happy to see these horny, heartbreaking, world-changing stories gathered together in one truly staggering collection.

-Sam J. Miller, author of Boys, Beasts & Men

Christopher Caldwells stories are lyrical and wondrous, his gaze unflinching and kind. Here are visions of doomed whaling voyages, bank robbers on the run from arcane enforcers, desperate characters confronting the worlds evils, gods and saints, betrayals and joys. Caldwell calls us to witness the world as it is and as it could be. The tales in Call and Response are magic: theyll transform you.

-Izzy Wasserstein, author of These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart

Call and Response is one of the most honest, brutal and beautiful collections of short work Ive ever read. It is full of love and pain and a will to not just endure, but thrive. Caldwells rich characterization and voice infuses every story with a flesh and blood heart-a heart that will leap from the page and beat in time with your own. I am in awe of this collection. Thank you for writing it.

-Suzan Palumbo, author of Skin Thief: Stories and Countess.

Author: Christopher Caldwell
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Neon Hemlock
Published: 10/14/2025
Pages: 190
Weight: 0.43lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.00w x 0.44d
ISBN: 9781966503149
Language: English