Poets Square

A Memoir in Thirty Cats

By: Courtney Gustafson

Narrated by: Courtney Gustafson

Brought to you by Penguin.

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

© Courtney Gustafson 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

Critic reviews

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

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 … I read this in two days and loved it

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

Truly moving; a heartfelt exploration of the humanity at the heart of animal welfare. Courtney masterfully weaves together stories of cats with stories of her own life and the lives of her community members—raw, flawed, and striving for goodness in a complex world. Her journey from cat observer to dedicated caregiver and community builder is profoundly inspiring

Poets Square is charming and tender, funny-sad, quirky in the best possible way. It’s a story about care and compassion and acts of kindness big and small. I flew through it – and I’m not even a cat person

In its euphoric kindness and tender suffering, this is an addictive book: pure catnip