Writers and cats have a long history together; there’s nothing as winsome and comforting as having a purring creature asleep nearby or entwined around your legs as you try and pen your next work. We share many attributes: fussiness, introspection, introversion, desire for solitude.
Canadian novelist and playwright Robertson Davies once opined, ‘Authors like cats because they are such quiet, loveable, wise creatures, and cats like authors for the same reasons.’ Aldous Huxley also reputedly said, ‘If you want to write, keep cats.’
Thuy On is the Reviews and Literary Editor of ArtsHub and an arts journalist, critic and poet who’s written for a range of publications including The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, Sydney Review of Books, The Australian, The Age/SMH and Australian Book Review. She was the Books Editor of The Big Issue for 8 years and a former Melbourne theatre critic correspondent for The Australian.
She has three collections of poetry published by the University of Western Australian Press (UWAP): Turbulence (2020), Decadence (2022) and Essence (2025).
Threads: @thuy_on123 Instagram: poemsbythuy
