The Cat Prince & Other Poems

by Michael Pedersen

All moggy moxie, Pedersen croons to the beauty and devastation of love, loss, friendship, cats and careless joy. Equal parts tender and trenchant, raw and ribald, plangent and smutty, these poems exhibit an emotionally charged, fantastical playground of language and lore.

From the brutalising death of a cherished friend comes a gut-wrenching grief. And so begins a tenacious quest for light, lustre and survival as Pedersen pays tender tribute to a gorgeous, life-altering friendship. In doing so, he harks back to the hilarity of being young, reckless and petrified: memories of boys showboating in a fishing tackle shop, games of feline metamorphosis, laments for demolished buildings and a case of constipation of the most pernicious stock.

As frisky as it is fierce, The Cat Prince pounces around the poet's emotional and physical landscapes, past and present, unfankling a Scotland full of gothic splendour and nature's majesty.

Genres: Poetry

Hardcover

First published July 6, 2023

About the author

Michael Pedersen: is a prize-winning Scottish author, a former Writer in Residence at Edinburgh University, and Edinburgh’s Makar (Poet Laureate). His debut novel Muckle Flugga was published by Faber in 2025 to rave reviews, several prize nominations, and will be released in French, German, Spanish, Italian, and beyond. His prose debut, Boy Friends, was a Sunday Times Critics Choice and shortlisted for Best Non-Fiction at Scotland’s National Book Awards. The Cat Prince & Other Poems, his third collection, won the Books Are My Bag Readers Award for Best Poetry 2023. Pedersen has also been shortlisted for the Forward Prizes for Poetry and won a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship. His work has been praised by Stephen Fry, Ocean Vuong, Bernardine Evaristo, & many more.

Reviews

[Mic. · Rating 5 out of 5]

uff. this one took a lot out of me…
the author’s stylistic choice of relying heavily on the use of enjambments creates a flowing, albeit sometimes disorienting, effect. for some, this might feel like a barrier, as the fragmented lines can obscure narrative understanding. i, too, struggled quite a bit here and there. however, this style enhances the emotional depth and rhythm of the poems, pulling me further into the messy, often chaotic nature of grief.
to me, this is also the strength of the collection. the poems that focus on the grief of losing a close friend stand out, especially to someone who struggles with the somewhat recent losses of loved ones on a daily basis.

favourite quote (taken from “weird things i am jealous of when wee”): i wanted to love him for being.
this line. oh, this line, man. raw and quietly heartbreaking. it captures the feeling i find impossible to put into words: the difficult and beautiful longing and misery to continue loving someone not just for who they were, but for the very fact of their existence. unfulfilled love put into a very simple and yet so disarming sentence.

***5/5 stars ***

[bookclubforme · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short but sweet this is such a wholesome and fun collection of poetry, some hilarious, others so beautifully worded. All hail The Cat Prince! 🐈👑

[Sorin Hadârcă · Rating 3 out of 5]

Has rhythm and I guess it's beautiful and playful, but I didn't sink in deep enough. I understood very little, in fact. Shame on me, perhaps?

[Enfys Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 but rounded up for titular poem, birds and blowies and THE poop poem.

[mia :•) · Rating 4 out of 5]

wow more poetry i actually enjoy! congrats michael pedersen

[Mads · Rating 5 out of 5]

automatic full marks just for using the word "blootered". but i'd have ranked it the same even if that word was absent; i don't think i've felt any other poetry collection quite so deeply. the speaker feels like a pal. what else can i say?

[silver · Rating 4 out of 5]

needs more cats x

[Jonathan Hart · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my first time reading Pedersen’s poetry and I adore it. I have never felt so understood by boyhood poetry. The themes of male friendship, boyhood, coming to age, and grief are all masterfully woven together in this truly beautiful collection. There are so many incredible poems in this collection that it is hard to create a shortlist but I shall keep it short by recommending just three of my favourite poems in this collection.

1) Lines on the Melodies in Men
2) 28/05/21 - that’ll be that
2.5) The skittle boys code of conduct
2.75) weird things I am jealous of when wee
2.9) We are other people to other people
3) The Cat Prince

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

A small poetry collection received from Shakespeare and Company from this Scottish poet. Poems about love, friendship, loss, fear of loss, death… and cats. These poems come in a variety of forms, including short, long, regular stanzas, no discernible structure, and games with the page layout. The words are beautiful, magical, dancing. I’m not sure if I fully understood everything, but I enjoyed a pleasant moment in a poetic land.

https://redheadwithabrain.ch/index.ph...

[Colin Murtagh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know what to make of this collection. To be honest, if I could it would be a 3.5 stars, as bits of it I adored. The cat prince itself is a wonderful piece, and it's not alone. There are some beautiful poems I really enjoyed
On the other hand, there is a lot of it I just don't get. It's trying to evoke a feeling, or a memory, but it just never lands for me. Even reading it out loud, feels like it lacks the rhythm I'd expect. It may be that it would sound better read by the poet, or it may just be that it's a style I don't get.
Saying that, I'm glad I tried it

[Eabha Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was just brilliant, michael’s book ‘boy friends’ is my favourite ever and his poetry is as much of a sucker punch emotionally as his prose. i love the themes of childhood and grief, and of male friendship which is so rarely detailed in contemporary poetry. i love that the settings of many of the poems are in cushendall and scotland’s central belt - places i know well but that are definitely under appreciated muses. read this all in one sitting on this balcony. excited to revisit it too.

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was at Shakespeare & Company in Paris, and randomly picked this up at the bookstore mainly because I was drawn to the pink cover and promise of cats. And what a gift to be able to read this in a cafe on the left bank.

My favorite poems were the title poem, this is what grief feels like, psalm on descent, and elder wand.

[Abram · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is filled with poems that are quite bad. The only redeeming quality of the book was that it forced me to remember that the fact that something is not immediately accessible does not imply that it should be passed over. Unfortunately, as this collection absolutely should be, my epiphany did not go beyond that point.

[✰matthew✰ · Rating 3 out of 5]

i enjoyed this and particularly enjoyed a few individual poems, some of the imagery is wild. it’s really nice to see such imagination, mixed with memories, spilt onto the page.

i did feel this collection as a whole lacked cohesion and flow, i didn’t always manage to figure what the poems were talking about.

[Claire Milne · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite authors and poets and this collection did not disappoint. Was made all the better by hearing some of them read by Michael Pedersen in person at Toppings in St Andrews.

[Jette · Rating 3 out of 5]

not enough cats
the one about isobel was nice tho

[Aaron Fleming · Rating 4 out of 5]

some wholesome, heartfelt and hilarious poetry, I find myself often going back to this collection and reading my favourites over and over again

[Suzanne Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Real fun poetry 🐈👑😻

[Eilidh Fyfe · Rating 2 out of 5]

just didn’t hit?? felt too performed

[lasyuh · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75/5

[Kit Hall · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sadly, the author does not wear his extensive vocabulary lightly.

[Cara Patel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this mostly for the cover, and the fact that it was labeled LGBT. I didn’t find the queerness very strong, if at all. The poems were well-written but often went over my head or were hard to understand. This might work well for someone who enjoys analyzing poetry, but it just wasn’t my cup of tea.

[Simon Pressinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such an imaginative poet, full of playfully inventive language, surrealist imagery and humour. I like how much value Pedersen places on friendship. I also like how he criticises traditional forms of masculinity through many of his own experiences. And also I like the ways in which he navigates loss and grief. Really good collection.

[Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing · Rating 5 out of 5]

what about the dog prince? #alllivesmatter (it was good I liked it a lot)