Prize-winning poet Pedersen’s ‘playful, experimental’ new collection goes to Corsair

Corsair has signed The Cat Prince & Other Poems, a new collection from prize-winning Scottish poet, writer and performer Michael Pedersen.

Deputy publisher Sarah Castleton acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Becky Thomas at the Lewinsohn Literary agency, for publication in hardback and e-book on 6th July 2023. A launch tour of the UK is planned.

Pedersen is the author of Oyster (Polygon), a collaboration with the late Scott Hutchison of the band Frightened Rabbit. His prose debut, Boy Friends, was published this year by Faber & Faber.

Pedersen said: “From the outset it was clear Sarah was just the spirited, sapient and trenchant editor this particular Cat Prince was seeking. My third collection of poems – my most vulnerable yet playful, experimental yet fastidiously sculpted – has found not just a publisher at Corsair but a kinship: allies and oddballs of the same mettle and making.

“It’s fantabulous to be on a list that shimmers so, and includes some of my favourite writers. I hope we light fires for the gorgeous friends and felines these poems pay tender tribute to."

Castleton added: “As anyone who has heard Michael read his poems will know, here is a writer who lives and loves with boundless generosity and fervour. The gorgeous poems in The Cat Prince gave me goosebumps of pure joy.

“They form a brave and genuine picture of a life – memories of a Scottish childhood, of carefree boys playing catty catch-me, learning the confusing “rules” of masculinity and male friendship; of beloved landscapes reduced to rubble; love poems, lust poems, and poems that search the darkest grief to find diamonds of pure guiding light. These poems sweep you off your feet in friendship, and offer an invitation to pay more attention to every human experience: the natural world, our memories, and each other.”