CATARACT begins in the desert, climaxes in fleeing wildfires, and ends in an OSHA conference call. From winery workers dying in the fields to endangered desert tortoises unable to outrun the flames, CATARACT is a venting of ecological rage, a communal cry in many voices against the few who keep us in this situation by using power to perpetuate inaction. "Callum Angus is one of the younger writers I’m most excited by, with a mind full of marvels and an ear to match. Every story surprises; every sentence strives gorgeously toward music. This is writing as transition, as entrancement, as transcendence." -- Garth Greenwell "Down with the medicalized so-called histories of our selves! Cal Angus has written our history as something much lusher, more fantastical, and for that reason, more true." -- Jordy Rosenberg "This chapbook from one of my favorite writers, Callum Angus (who also wrote the story collection A Natural History of Transition ), is a perfect read for these existential times. It’s short, for those of us with scattered attention spans. It’s experimental in a way that lights up the brain, and it contains beautiful writing that is also rooted in rage at the people and systems that actively (and gleefully) facilitate the climate crisis." -- Sarah Neilson ― THEM (The 16 Best LGBTQ+ Books of 2024) A fiery new prose chapbook from Callum Angus, the celebrated author of A Natural History of Transition . Callum Angus is the author of the story collection A Natural History of Transition (Metonymy Press, 2021) which was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award in Transgender Fiction, the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction, and an Oregon Book Award. His work has appeared in Joyland, Orion, Nat. Brut, and many other venues, and was anthologized in Kink, a collection edited by Garth Greenwell and R.O. Kwon. He has received fellowships and residencies from Lambda Literary, the Regional Arts & Culture Council, the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest, and the Sitka Center for Art & Ecology. A former bookseller, he holds an MFA in fiction from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He now makes his home in Portland, Oregon, where he edits the literary journal smoke and mold, teaches writing workshops online and in-person, and is at work on a novel of decay.