Call and Response

by Christopher Caldwell

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."



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 Christopher's particular 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 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 Stories and Countess.

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Short Story Collection, Science Fiction, Fiction

184 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 14, 2025

Reviews

[Gyalten Lekden · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a breathtaking collection about gentle strength, integrity, and power. It explores humanity through the lens of the fantastic, with strong stories that have meaningful, genuine characters within rich worlds and environments. By and large the magical or fantastic elements are secondary to the stories, they play important narrative roles, but the stories aren’t about the magic, the unknown. They are about understanding yourself and how you fit into a world that doesn’t always want to accept you, and proudly taking up space anyway. Resilience, family, identity, and strength all share time as the backbones for these stories as they explore emotional depths with determination and style.

The format, having the latter five stories reflect the first five, is unexpectedly great. Each story stands on its own and I wasn’t clamoring for sequels or extensions of the particular worlds/themes of the first five stories, but when the “response” section offered its tales everything fit together so well it really makes the collection special. The writing is powerful and confident, weaving strong character voice with a contemplative, litfic, soft-spoken style. The collection opens with a heart-on-its-sleeve crime story and covers different flavors of magical realism across the other stories, but they all deserve to be celebrated. I particularly enjoyed the duets of “The Beekeeper’s Garden” / “Counting Her Petals” and “Femme and Sundance” / “Miz Bourdeaux’s Last Ride,” but honestly was immersed in and impressed by every story.

(Rounded from 4.5)

[Siavahda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an objectively excellent collection, even if it wasn’t wholly for me – simply because I like my fiction optimistic, and few of the stories here have what I’d consider happy endings. But that’s because Caldwell is often writing about being Black (and usually queer) in our world, which often means dealing with bitter realities. Which is not to say this collection is unutterably depressing, or grimdark-ish, but I’d call these stories of Black resilience or strength more than I would Black joy. Many stories see their protagonists carving out some kind of happiness or vengeance out of terrible circumstances, and in that way they are stories of triumph. I just wished for happier endings for all of them!

The collection is divided into two parts, predictably enough titled Call and Response; I enjoyed the Response stories much more, since more of them were more overtly fantastical – secondary world settings, more dramatic magic, deities. Several characters featured in one story show up again in another, sometimes around the edges, sometimes featuring, and probably there is something very clever about this that I’m not picking up on, but even so it felt like a little thrill every time I recognised a name from another story. Birds and flowers and water are recurring motifs, and I don’t know what they’re meant to symbolise, but they’re striking nonetheless. Each chapter has what I think is a vèvè at the end; what this particular vèvè means, if I'm right and it even is one, I don't know.

Honestly, Call and Response left me with the certainty that Caldwell is a very clever writer, that this is a collection that deserves to be lovingly analysed because it has so many layers, so much depth, so many not-obvious meanings. I freely admit I’m not smart enough to recognise all of it, or be able to articulate all of what I was picking up; but I can still sense some of that brilliance, feel the weight of it even if I can’t identify all of it. It’s the kind of book I’d love to discuss with a book club, or attend lectures on, or read what Proper Critics write about it. I’d love to be taught this book, I think is what I mean.

Repeatedly, characters in these stories ultimately triumph because of earlier acts of compassion or generosity, as when a drag queen gets vengeance with the help of a supernatural fish s/he caught and set free as a child, or a slave is given the power to enact his vengeance because of his respectful devotion to a god of the sea. (Or maybe these things are justice rather than vengeance; I’m not sure of the difference, but I do think justice vs vengeance is something of a theme here.) Others lean into community and history. Almost all the characters are fighting against power structures that do not value them in one way or another, not all of which are racial; for example in If Salt Lose Its Savor, a salt-harvester acts against a powerful sorcerer when she learns he’s done terrible things, in a secondary-world setting where everyone involved is dark-skinned. But mostly the power structures are more familiar: a Caucasian witch who straightens a Black girl’s hair to take her memories and remould her into a perfect daughter; the master who sells a slave’s family away from him; a religion based on terrible lies; the weight of capitalism. In Deep Like Rivers, a Black mother mourns the loss of her son and how badly she mishandled the discovery he was gay (plus merfolk); Counting Her Petals sees a Black trans woman, upon discovering magic exists, deciding to build a new, perfect world out of computers and magic, because the transphobia in this one is too much.

These may not be perfectly happy stories (by my standard, anyway) but they are breathtaking: Caldwell’s prose is sharp and crisp, dancing through styles and perspectives, balancing harsher themes with gorgeous imagery, anchoring the fantastical with the homely. When magic appears, it’s wondrous and strange and beautiful in the best way, magic that feels like magic and gets into your dreams (I cannot tell you how much I love the merfolk, or how much I hope Caldwell turns The Calcified Heart of Saint Ignace Battise into a novel). They are not comfortable stories, but they’re not meant to be; what they are is powerful, and stunning, stories I’m going to be thinking about for a long, long time.

Christopher Caldwell is going directly onto my buy-everything-they-publish author list, and I seriously can’t WAIT to see what he gives us next.

[Mahaila Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy shit, this was good.

I don't typically read short story collections, but I decided to read this one to fulfil the "short story" category in this year's Toronto Public Library bingo card. I am very thankful I did.

Christopher Caldwell has a way of making your heart break in just a few lines. For example, take the opening of the book.

"I was nineteen when I met Tommy. A day and a bit into a two-day Greyhound trip to bum-fuck, Nevada to Saint Paul, Minnesota. Going to meet some trick from the internet. Thought it was true love."

After a couple of paragraphs I was hooked.

The metaphors in the collection are flawless. Each one brightens the unique world of each story. And each of these stories is so unique. A couple of them are cousins of recognizable fairy tales, my personal favourite pair of stories being based on the Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen. The stories aren't constrained to a single subgenre of fantasy, and feature urban fantasy, historical fantasy, secondary world fantasy and a bit of science fantasy.

A lot of the magic in these stories is related to vodou and rootwork. As another reviewer noticed, the sections in the collection are marked by veves of Madame Brigitte. According to Wikipedia, she is a death spirit. Reflecting on this, I realized how many of these stories are set in the peripheries of life and the living. The collection features ghosts, grief, disappearances and sacrifice.

I very much appreciated reading the author's brief notes on each story at the end of the book. It was fascinating to read how his experiences informed each piece.

I found that the format of a collection laid out in "call" and "response" stories very compelling, and had a hard time putting this book down, as I was so invested in what would happen to those characters, and in their worlds in the second half.

I feel inspired to read more short story collections now and will absolutely pick up anything else Caldwell publishes.

[Preston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Call and Response is a fairly new anthology of short stories by Christopher Caldwell built around a delightful premise: what if each story comes in a pair? In Call, Caldwell introduces characters and worlds, only to return to them in Response. Sometimes these appearances are small cameos, other times they are directs sequels. Call and Response is unapologetically black and queer, with several stories sneaking semi-autobiographical details into the fantastic. This collection won’t satisfy those seeking the tight research of Ted Chiang or the experimental forms of Isabel Kim. However, Caldwell’s stories are candid, intense, and thoughtful. I’d love to see what he can do with a full novel.

Read If Looking For: stories of black resilience and rebellion, diverse representations of queerness, aquatic motifs

Avoid If Looking For: experiments in form or structure, answers to broken systems, unambiguous endings

Reflections on the Collection as a Whole:
There were a few throughlines in this collection. Oceans and water certainly make more appearances than I’d have expected for a collection that isn’t explicitly set up around that theme. However, I think the real through line of these stories is what we owe each other. Sometimes the stakes are personal, actions taken with close relationships driving characters to take radical action. At other times, Caldwell explores how you don’t owe those who abuse you kindness or understanding. But these stories always remain deeply personal, and the characters Caldwell writes rise to the needs when the stakes are so individual to a person’s situation.

You’ll find vengeance more than forgiveness in Call and Response, and that vengeance can’t be separated from Caldwell’s explicit focus on the experiences of Black (and often Queer) Americans. The first story, Femme and Sundance, opens with our protagonist walking into a rural midwest diner where bigotry hung thick in the air. It was a portrait of how hostile ‘midwest nice’ can be to those who are deemed Other. As a rural Kansas boy, Caldwell nailed the atmosphere in a way few authors capture. Other stories tackle slavery, the degrading of black hair, and the family pressures for a young boy to be properly masculine. Call and Response doesn’t focus on the characters making system-level change. Instead it focuses its spotlight on characters fighting for their place in the world and refusing to accept dehumanization.

While Caldwell did a great job of differentiating voice between narrators- something I always look for in anthologies – the collection kept to a very consistent form. The stories are straightforward: the most complexities you’ll find are bouncing back in time or writing in dialect. Anthologies don’t always need stories that take huge structural risks, but I like reading those stories (if you don’t like it, its short!) and wished Caldwell had taken one or two of the stories in stranger directions.

The Short Stories (Presented as their Pairs)

Femme and Sundance: a couple goes on a wild-west style crime spree with the help of some magical artifacts. A story full of life, without feeling the need to make our protagonists ‘good’ all the time.

Miz Bourdeaux’s Last Ride: one of two stories that is more or less a direct sequel: we follow the couple from Femme many decades later, dealing with their unnaturally aging bodies. It was a great epilogue to a really sweet couple.

____

The Lonesome Sea: a young slave is turned into a cabin boy, learning how to handle himself at sea while maintaining relationships with his people’s god of the deep ocean. This was my favorite story from Call, and it all clicked for me.

Canst Thou Draw Out The Leviathan: a whaler and a carpenter keep their relationship secret while their vessel goes out to sea. It features sea gods and whales and the hero from The Lonesome Sea.

____

The Beekeeper’s Garden: a young black girl is trapped in the home of a woman with magic bees. How white folks – especially those with authority – police black hair and degrade natural hair textures is a core part of this story, also featuring lots of talking to plants. I thought things fell off a bit at the ending, but enjoyed most of it.

Counting Her Petals: this is the other direct sequel we get. We follow the girl, now an adult, navigating a relationship with a trans woman who is retreating from the world into a virtual one. It bounced between three timelines, including a retelling of The Beekeper’s Garden. I kind of wish it had been more laser focused, and I don’t think the retelling was necessary when presented in tandem with the original story.

____

Serving Fish: a take on The Fisherman and His Wife where the protagonist fills both human roles- we love a drag queen. A good take on a classic ‘make a wish’ format.

Deep Like the Rivers: a mother struggles to parent a child obsessed with the ocean (and gay). A heartfelt story following a character who doesn’t get it right, while still acknowledging her humanity. I cried. No notes.
____

If Salt Lose It Savor: This should have been my favorite in the first half: it focuses on a character who processes magical ingredients used for war spells, only for her to realize her part in creating magical nukes. I thought the setup and conclusion were both strong, but I wish there had been more intensity in the ‘realizes what I’m a part of’ portion of the story. I was so close to adoring this one.

The Calcified Heart of Saint Ignace Battiste – An acolyte spies on one of the most sacred rituals of his cult’s order, revealing a secret that shifts his view of his religion. As with If Salt, I found this one a bit lackluster in the moments that were supposed to be the most intense/emotional. They’re also the most ‘high fantasy’, which should be my jam, but I also don’t experience much high fantasy in short format.

____

Conclusion: a straightforward collection about what we demand from our world. Also featuring lots of water.

Want More Reviews Like This? try my blog Marked For Plot

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a pretty good short story collection, mixing different fantastical elements exploring queerness and belonging. The collection is separated into two parts, with the stories from the second part reflecting on the stories in the first part in a way I've never seen before. Caldwell continuously visits water in different forms, as a symbol for change, which I really enjoyed. These where my favourites, especially "Serving Fish" and "Deep Like the Rivers".

I personally didn't connect with this collection but I'm grateful to The 2026 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction, that led me to discover this and broadened my horizons.

[Nils · Rating 4 out of 5]

These stories were so great. They are a perfect mix of modern and classic fantasy with a diverse cast of characters and modern themes. I think the first half ‘Call‘ is especially good and could very well stand on its own. The second half ‘Response‘ also has great stories but I think that some of the stories of ‘Call‘ were stronger without their sibling in ‘Response‘. That being said, it‘s a great collection of stories. Read it!

[Tim Hicks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some interesting and educational looks at other cultures, and a full star for being able to make pairs of stories link up effectively.

The stories are engaging, and just the right length for what they convey.

And it's not a big heavy volume, so if you see it, go for it. Change of pace!

[Varadia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked these stories a lot. And the structure of the book. Of one story being the call and a second story as response, separated at the middle. It was really neat!

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t have much to say about this collection of short stories except that I thoroughly enjoyed all the stories.

[Venneh · Rating 5 out of 5]

neon hemlock was kind enough to pass me this anthology; thank you again, dave! Caldwell is an author I'd not heard of before this, but the ways he dives into personhood, politics, agency, and sexuality, and the way he takes stories in the first half and has corresponding stories responding to them in the second half, is incredibly well done structurally. Highly recommended anthology read.