New York’s Bodega Cats: 60 Stories in a Coming Book
A new book by Dan Rimada and photographer Gulce Kilkis will collect 60 portraits and stories of cats that live and work in New York City bodegas. The 240-page volume, set to release in November 2026 from Epic Ink, an imprint of Quarto, will feature 150 photographs and the narratives of each cat’s daily life.
The project began in 2020 when a cat named Luna in a Fort Greene bodega kept Rimada at the counter longer than his shopping required. By 2022 he was visiting bodegas specifically to meet the cats and hear their stories. The book’s intent is to ask the simple question, “Who is this cat?” and to record details that might otherwise disappear when a shop closes or a neighborhood changes.
Rimada writes the stories while Kilkis captures the portraits. The book also plans to launch a free public archive of bodega cats in 2027.
A highlighted example is Layla, a blue-eyed calico from a Manhattan Financial District bodega. When she arrived, the shop had been closed for four years and its basement was overrun with mice. Within three days she eliminated the mouse problem, showing how some cats become essential to their human partners.
The book is available for preorder.
Key takeaways
- The book will contain 60 cats, 150 photographs and 240 pages.
- It is due out in November 2026 from Epic Ink, an imprint of Quarto.
- Dan Rimada began the project in 2020 with a cat named Luna.
- By 2022 he was visiting bodegas to meet cats and record their stories.
- A free public archive of bodega cats is planned to open in 2027.
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Originally reported by Cats Magazine. Read the full article.
Cover photo by marwan benjamin via Pexels.
