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Poets Square by Courtney Gustafson (Hardback)
£16.99
Available
Product Ref. (e.g. ISBN, SKU)
9780241650745
Published:
08 May 2025
Format:
Hardback
Number of pages:
160 pages
Dimensions:
222x138x25mm
Weight:
0.400kgs
Author:
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 would, in time, become part of her family, expand her world spectacularly, and help pierce a personal darkness she'd wrestled with for much of her life.
People kept asking: Why would you have cats that don't love you back?
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 would, in time, become part of her family and help pierce a personal darkness she'd wrestled with for much of her life.
Beebs was the first cat to appear, allowing herself to be petted in the driveway. And then came so many others. There was Monkey, the hissing, dark-blotched 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. There was the sweet, serene Dr. Big Butt, who brought lessons about grief. And there was Goldie, the tiny king of Poets Square: sick, skinny, but completely unafraid. These cats - and many, many others - would expand her world spectacularly.
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, she explores what her encounters with feral cats 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
'Courtney Gustafson writes with uncommon grace about the castoff, the abandoned, the invisible. This book should be read and treasured for its ability to make the reader more human and humane' Lauren Slater, author of Blue Dreams
'Deftly intertwined with the individual stories of all these cats is her own story of how she got there … She is clear-eyed about the deviation of her life' Esther Walker, The Spike
About the Author: Courtney Gustafson is the creator of @PoetsSquareCats on TikTok (918k) and Instagram (61k). 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.
| Number of pages | 160 |
|---|
We will despatch your order as quickly as we can. If, for whatever reason, a product is out of stock we will contact you to discuss the likely delivery time or an alternative product.
| First Item | 2 Items & Over | |
|---|---|---|
| UK | £3.75 | £5.00 |
| EU | £15.00 | £30.00 |
| USA & Canada | £30.00 | £50.00 |
| Rest of the World | £45.00 | £60.00 |
| Collect in Store | free | free |
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