Gwen Cooper is a New York City-based American novelist and author of the 2009 New York Times bestselling memoir Homerâs Odyssey: A Fearless Feline Tale, or How I Learned about Love and Life with a Blind Wonder Cat, a memoir about her life with an abandoned, eyeless cat that she rescued when he was three weeks old and subsequently named Homer.
In 2007, Simon & Schuster published Cooperâs first novel, Diary of a South Beach Party Girl, inspired in part by Cooperâs own experiences living and working in Miamiâs trendy South Beach in the late 1990s.
Cooperâs third book, Love Saves the Day, a novel told from the point of view of a cat named Prudence, was published by Random House in January, 2013. Set in both New York Cityâs Lower East Side during the 1970s/1980s and on the present-day Upper West Side, the novel takes its name from two inspirations: The Love Saves The Day vintage store located on Manhattan's East Village and from the âLove Saves The Dayâ gatherings of the early 1970s, well-known underground parties that were the proving ground of Dee-Jays and modern dance music.
Biography
Gwen Cooper - Blind Cat's Tale (Homer's Odyssey) - Gwen Cooper - Able to leap tall bookcases! Catches flies mid-buzz! Yet the feline hero of HOMER'S ODYSSEY is blind, and this is his inspirational love story that completely changed the life...
Gwen Cooper was born in Miami, Florida. She moved to New York City in 2001, where she currently lives with her husband, Laurence Lerman, and their [current] cats Clayton, and Fanny. Homer [deceased] was blinded as a kitten by an eye infection, and Clayton is a tripod cat, Cooper has noted that, âWhen the cat with three legs and the cat with no eyes get into a fight, itâs the worldâs saddest cat fight.â She also notes, however, that âthe two donât fight very often.â
Cooper is active with numerous animal-welfare organizations and donates 10% of her royalties from Homerâs Odyssey to organizations that serve abused, abandoned, and disabled animals. In September 2010 she traveled to Raleigh, NC to present a $10,000 check to Blind Cat Rescue & Sanctuary.
Homer, Cooper's oldest cat and inspiration for Homerâs Odyssey: A Fearless Feline Tale, or How I Learned about Love and Life with a Blind Wonder Cat, was euthanized on August 21, 2013, at age 16. There have been reactions to his passing away worldwide, with thousands of fans showing their support on social media.
Early career
While living in Miami prior to moving to Manhattan, Cooper worked in non-profit administration for organizations including Youth Crime Watch of Dade County and Hands on Miami. She also produced the event launch of the truth anti-tobacco campaign in 1998 when the program first started.
In New York City, prior to the publication of her first book, she worked in creative services for AOL Time Warner's marketing department and as Special Projects Manager at Wenner Media LLC, publisher of Rolling Stone and Us Weekly magazines.
Homerâs Odyssey: A Fearless Feline Tale, or How I Learned about Love and Life with a Blind Wonder Cat
In August, 2009, Random House published Cooperâs memoir Homerâs Odyssey: A Fearless Feline Tale, or How I Learned about Love and Life with a Blind Wonder Cat.
The memoir has its roots in a story that Cooper published on Salon.com in October, 2008. The story, entitled âMucho Gato,â details an episode when Homer confronted an armed thief who attempted to rob Cooper in her Miami apartment one night in 2000. The âMucho Gatoâ posting was one of the most popular posts on Salon.com's Open Salon blogging platform that month.
Homerâs Odyssey: A Fearless Feline Tale, or How I Learned about Love and Life with a Blind Wonder Cat debuted at the #14 spot on the New York Times Best Seller List upon publication and spent four weeks on the list. A paperback edition of the memoir was published in 2010 and also spent four weeks on the New York Times Best Seller List.
Homerâs Odyssey: A Fearless Feline Tale, or How I Learned about Love and Life with a Blind Wonder Cat has been published in 15 languages in some 22 countries around the world, including the Netherlands (Wonderkat), Germany (Homer und Ich), Italy (Omero Gatto Nero), France (L'odyssée d'Homère), Russia (ÐдиÑÑÐµÑ Ð"омеÑа), Finland (Homer-kissan uskomaton elämä), Poland (Odyseja kota imieniem Homer), England, Korea, China, and Japan.
Homerâs Odyssey follows Cooperâs life with Homer, the three-week-old abandoned blind kitten that she adopted in 1997 while living in Miami. Spanning 12 years, the memoir covers Cooperâs experiences with Homer (and her two other cats, Vashti and Scarlett) as she endured a see-sawing professional and personal life. Sections of the memoir include Homer confronting an armed thief who attempts to rob Cooper in her Miami apartment, Cooper and her cats relocating from Miami to downtown Manhattan in New York City, and Cooperâs efforts to return home to her cats who were trapped alone in an apartment near the World Trade Center following the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The final third of the memoir focuses on Cooperâs attempts to acclimate her cats and the man she would eventually marry to living together in their Manhattan apartment.
Cooper has said that, âultimately a special-needs pet is just like any other pet, and just as capable of loving you and living a wonderful life as any other animal,â and that she wrote Homerâs Odyssey in part to promote that message.
Love Saves the Day
In January 2013, Random House published Cooperâs second novel and third book, Love Saves the Day. Narrated from the perspective of a rescue tabby cat named Prudence, Love Saves the Day tells the story of a Lower East Side cat forced to move to the Upper West Side home of her ownerâs daughter, Laura, after her owner, Sarah, fails to return home from work one day. Although initially wary of each other, over the course of the novel Laura and Prudence form a strong bond that will change both their lives. Translation rights for Love Saves the Day have so far been sold in Germany, Italy, Russia, and Turkey.
In May 2013, Cooper launched a first-of-its-kind national book tour of no-kill animal shelters, rather than bookstores, in support of Love Saves the Day. Noting that âlove does save the day for millions of abused and abandoned animals through the work of shelters and rescue groups,â and that âwhen you help animals, you help people, too,â Cooper selected over a dozen shelters for the tour on the strength of their innovative programs that also serve the human communityâ"including the elderly, the disabled, disaster survivors, at-risk children, and moreâ"as an extension of their work with rescue animals. The tour is sponsored by Arm & Hammer Ultra Last Clumping Cat Litter and Litter Genie, who are also making product donations to each of the shelters visited on the tour.
References
External links
- Gwen Cooper's official website