Call and Response

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

Saints and sailors, scoundrels and surfers.

Caldwell's 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."

"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 Christopher's 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 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 Caldwell's 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 world's 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: they'll 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 I've ever read. It is full of love and pain and a will to not just endure, but thrive. Caldwell's 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.