Astrophil Press and Editor duncan b. barlow published a long-form version of my cat essay, The Strangers Among Us in 2017. “The Strangers Among Us is a beautifully written exploration into the human obsession with cats and cat-like behavior. Picard makes use of philosophy, art criticism, YouTube videos, and James Joyce’s Ulyssess to reason through, not only the popular culture fascination with our feline companions, but her personal relationship with own her cats. Part philosophical exploration, part touching memoir, all head and heart, The Strangers Among Us is a must for animal lovers, artists, and book lovers alike.” Find it here.

There was a nice write up in Cleaver Magazine that compares the text to Eileen Myles’ dog memoir, Afterglow. “In two recent books, by Eileen Myles and Caroline Picard, a dog person and a cat person, respectively, confess the closeness they feel to their pets while also marveling at the strangeness of intimacy with another kind of being. Reading both of these books together becomes a chance to deeply explore the intimate otherness of animal companionship.” Read Jordan A. Rothacker’s  full review here.

A shorter version of this essay was presented to the Yale School of Architecture during their 2016 Symposium, Aesthetic Activism, and published in a related volume in 2019 volume, Aesthetics Equals Politics: New Discourses across Art, Architecture, and Philosophy (ed. Mark Foster Gage).