I have wanted to make this book since the archive became bigger than an Instagram account. Four years later, I can finally show you the cover and some finished pages.
Bodega Cats of New York will be published on November 3, 2026, by Epic Ink, an imprint of Quarto. It is a 240-page hardcover with 150 photographs of 60 cats across all five boroughs. I wrote the stories. Gulce Kilkis made the photographs.
The cats are where we found them: behind the register, on top of the ATM, or asleep in the one cardboard box nobody is allowed to throw away.
Watch the official trailer
A first look inside
Until now, I could only share individual photographs. These are the first finished pages I can show.
Interior spreads supplied by Epic Ink / Quarto. Photos: Bodega Cats of New York / Gulce Kilkis.
Some cats get full profiles. Others have a shorter entry. For one cat, the detail that mattered was a regular who always said hello before ordering coffee. Another answered to different names depending on who was working.
How we made it
I started paying closer attention to bodega cats in 2020. In 2022, I began the archive. Most early visits came from one store owner telling me about another cat nearby.
I spent four years building those relationships. Gulce led the book photography across roughly the final two years. We made a lot of return trips. Sometimes the cat was hiding. Sometimes the owner needed more time before signing a release. A busy store could wipe out the whole visit.
A bodega is a bad photo studio. The light changes from one end of the aisle to the other while customers and deliveries keep moving. The cat may leave before the camera is ready.
Gulce would pick a spot and wait. Eventually people stopped looking at the camera and the cat went back to whatever it had been doing. That was usually when she got the picture.
What I wanted to preserve
I did not want to make a general book about bodega cats. I wanted the names, the stores, and stories from the people who saw these cats every day. If a cat disappeared from its usual spot, they noticed.
Some stores take great care of their cats. Others do not. The book includes health inspections, cats that arrived with the lease, and times when rescue groups had to step in.
The archive also became part of BCNY's push for clearer care standards and a legal path for working shop cats. The current campaign and bill status are on the advocacy page.
The book is available for preorder
The book publishes November 3, 2026. Preorders are open now.
Choose a bookseller and preorder Bodega Cats of New York. You can also get occasional launch updates.
Related stories
Three public dates are on the calendar: Reddit’s r/bodega pop-up, a City Reliquary slideshow and talk, and Brooklyn Public Library on October 29.
On June 25, 2026, I joined Untapped New York for a virtual talk about the BCNY archive, the book, and the current City Council bill.
English-language newspaper archives show little coverage of bodega cats before 2007, though Spanish-language and photographic collections may hold more.
Published July 21, 2026
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