First book of poetry by Dr Nima Poovaya-Smith celebrates her profound curiosity about wild cats

Dr Nima Poovaya-Smith OBE is a prominent figure in the cultural, academic and public sectors, well known for her work on transcultural and post-colonial South Asian museum collections in Bradford and multidisciplinary arts projects across the region and beyond. Less well known is her affinity with cats of all persuasions, wild or domestic.

The Wild Cats Compendium, Poovaya-Smith’s first solo collection of illustrated poetry, will be launched at Ilkley Literature Festival on 13 October 2022.

The Compendium is first and foremost a love letter to all felines large and small. Legends and fables of the cat world, as well as their often bleak, everyday lives is explored by Poovaya-Smith, in this collection of 45 poems. There is the reed or jungle cat who may have once dined with the Crown Prince of an Egyptian Pharoah and ended up interred with him; an ocelot gifted to Salvador Dali who tried unsuccessfully to run away and the smallest feline in Southern Africa – the black-footed cat - which eats almost a fifth of its body weight night after night. Environmentalist Benjamin Lascelles, who has written the End piece comments that Compendium “captures the essence of the many species brilliantly and highlights the many threats they face. The geographic, conservation and threat references are meticulously researched and powerfully conveyed.”

Nima Poovaya-Smith says: “I have always taken a deep interest in cats. Wild or domestic, they are some of nature’s most charismatic creatures. I am enthralled by the facts and fables that surround them. I am certainly not the first, nor will I be the last, to find these animals so captivating. Across the world, we have had a special relationship with the feline species for thousands of years. They have been celebrated in literature and art as well as music and dance. I found particular delight in gleaning more information about lesser-known small cats. Each one is characterful enough to hold its own with the bigger, more iconic cats. The more I learned, the more enigmatic and fascinating they became. I hope that the emotions I experienced exploring the feline world – joy and a deep sense of loss - will resonate with all readers.”

Writer, historian, journalist and author of Victoria and Abdul Shrabani Basu in her Foreword to The Wild Cats Compendium states: “Nima Poovaya-Smith takes us into the myth and magic of the cat world. Through her beautiful poems, we get a glimpse into their lives as pampered pets or solitary creatures. She questions, probes, and enlightens us, not just about the tiger or the lion, but also about some of the lesser-known species of the cat family. A cat, they say, has nine lives. Poovaya-Smith’s forty-five poems give them many more.”

The different species of cat in Compendium are each accompanied by images – twenty-eight of which are new works by seven different artists. There are also some earlier works by contemporary artists and six historic Illustrations from the 19th century.