diff --git a/fsspec/gui.py b/fsspec/gui.py
index c6e9eb9df..efa5b5f86 100644
--- a/fsspec/gui.py
+++ b/fsspec/gui.py
@@ -242,7 +242,7 @@ def __init__(self, url=None, filters=None, ignore=None, kwargs=None):
         else:
             self.init_protocol, url = "file", os.getcwd()
         self.init_url = url
-        self.init_kwargs = kwargs or "{}"
+        self.init_kwargs = (kwargs if isinstance(kwargs, str) else str(kwargs)) or "{}"
         self.filters = filters
         self.ignore = [re.compile(i) for i in ignore or []]
         self._fs = None
diff --git a/fsspec/implementations/reference.py b/fsspec/implementations/reference.py
index cfbd39fc1..85bbc0b4b 100644
--- a/fsspec/implementations/reference.py
+++ b/fsspec/implementations/reference.py
@@ -794,6 +794,7 @@ def cat(self, path, recursive=False, on_error="raise", **kwargs):
             raise NotImplementedError
         if isinstance(path, list) and (recursive or any("*" in p for p in path)):
             raise NotImplementedError
+        # TODO: if references is lazy, pre-fetch all paths in batch before access
         proto_dict = _protocol_groups(path, self.references)
         out = {}
         for proto, paths in proto_dict.items():
diff --git a/fsspec/tests/test_gui.py b/fsspec/tests/test_gui.py
index 00586389f..38b83a2cf 100644
--- a/fsspec/tests/test_gui.py
+++ b/fsspec/tests/test_gui.py
@@ -17,3 +17,7 @@ def test_kwargs(tmpdir):
     gui = fsspec.gui.FileSelector(f"file://{tmpdir}", kwargs="{'auto_mkdir': True}")
 
     assert gui.fs.auto_mkdir
+
+    gui = fsspec.gui.FileSelector(f"file://{tmpdir}", kwargs={"auto_mkdir": True})
+
+    assert gui.fs.auto_mkdir