The Cats of Poets Square

byCourtney Gustafson

A Memoir in Thirty Feral Cats

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Previously published as Poets Square: A Memoir in Thirty Cats

The morning after Courtney Gustafson moved into an old house in the Poets Square neighbourhood of Tucson, Arizona, she noticed tiny pawprints all over her driveway. They were the first evidence of a colony of feral cats, who, to her surprise, would expand her world spectacularly.

Beebs was the first to appear. Then there was Monkey, the dark-blotched ‘scheming little gremlin’ calico, and Reverse Monkey, her timid, white-blotched opposite. There were Sad Boy and Lola, the inseparable pair who made their way across the internet and into strangers’ wedding vows. And there was Goldie, the tiny king of Poets Square: sick, skinny, but completely fearless.

Poets Square is a love letter to community in a broken society, told through the cats Courtney meets in dark alleys, neglected homes and her own driveway; cats she cherishes and must sometimes let go. Above all, it explores what loving these feral creatures, in all their noise and need, can teach us about care, connectedness and the power of hope.

Cats are mystical beings, bridging the spiritual and the tangible. Courtney Gustafson’s Poet Square is a book that helps us connect to this spiritual world, offering a bridge to the ethereal

Ai Weiwei

About Courtney Gustafson

Courtney Gustafson is the creator of @PoetsSquareCats on TikTok (1m) and Instagram (269k). Before she had thirty cats, she completed a masters degree and PhD coursework in rhetoric and composition at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where her interests included community literacies and literacy within incarcerated populations. She taught first-year writing at UMass before leaving academia to work in nonprofit communications. Most recently she’s worked for a large regional food bank, managing social media strategy, storytelling, fundraising, and crisis communications. She has continued to teach creative writing and adult basic literacy as a volunteer in prisons and in refugee communities in Tucson, Arizona, and volunteers as a mentor to incarcerated writers with PEN America’s Prison and Justice Writing Program.
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Details
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • ISBN: 9781405988186
  • Length: 256 pages
  • Price: £5.99
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Book cover of Poets Square by Courtney Gustafson
Poets SquareCourtney Gustafson