Cat Abenstein (pronounced A-ben-steen) (she/her) is a nueroqueer white settler creating in oskana kâ-asastêki in Treaty 4 (Regina, SK). She’s a spoken word artist, writer, and arts administrator where she is witness to the connection, community, and identity found through stories. 

Since 2012, Cat has taken her work to local, provincial, and national stages, founded and coached nationally competing youth poetry slam teams, has worked as an artist-in-residence, mentored and supported emerging poets, and has organized, hosted, and facilitated dozens of spoken word and writing events in Saskatchewan. 

As an arts administrator, Cat learned the ropes at the Creative City Centre, under the mentorship of Marian Donnelly, and, as one does in the arts, worked in various roles including General Manager (for one year) and Spoken Word Coordinator from 2015 until 2022. Cat’s work ethic and non-profit programming wizardry expanded into her current role as Program Manager at the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild where she’s worked since 2018. After working more than full-time hours most of her working life, Cat has been trying to embody the idea that rest doesn’t need to be earned, and in fact, rest is radical. 

As a spoken word artist, Cat has offered her organizing, performance, and workshop facilitation skills to organizations across Saskatchewan such as the Saskatchewan Writers Guild’ (prior to her employment as their Program Manager), Cathedral Village Arts Festival, Creative City Centre, Saskatchewan Festival of Words, Common Weal Community Arts, Regina Public Library, Regina Open Door Society, The Dunlop Art Gallery, The Artesian, and more, including secondary and post-secondary schools. Cat is an ensemble alumni of SPAF 2019 (Saskatoon Poetic Arts Festival) and has earned a place as a member of the Regina Word Up Poetry Slam Team several times. After winning the “Look Deeper” contest in 2017 through the Saskatchewan Council for International Cooperation, Cat’s poem “Choose to Tell” was broadcast on CBC radio. Cat has been a radio co-host for 91.3 FM CJTR Regina Community Radio on the shows “The Sour Hour” and “Chart Breaker” and her poem “Snake Apologist” was featured in the augmented reality art tour “Queering the Creek” in 2020. Cat has hosted 13 episodes of Prairie People’s Poetry, a spotlight series released by the Creative City Centre featuring SK spoken word artists through performances and conversations on the craft and community of the art form.

Cat has expanded her writing into page poetry, short fiction, and creative nonfiction and has published work in a few small places, including antilang, Speak Up! Inspire Change! (Saskatchewan Council for International Cooperation), and in an anthology with the New York City based writers collective, The Unbearables. Cat is currently building her portfolio.  

Cat’s poetry explores themes of addiction and sobriety, mental health and illness, consent, and the familial, ancestral, and the environmental. Cat’s fiction plays with all things horror from a female and queer perspective.  

When she’s not absolutely consuming books in any of their formats (yes, audiobooks are reading), she’s dreaming about the ways words weave us all together. She lives with her wife, Léa, and their two cats, Ponyo and Lando in a house older than all of their ages combined.