Rupi Kaur

Rupi Kaur (Punjabi: ਰੂਪੀ ਕੌਰ; born 4 October 1992) is an Indian-Canadian poet, illustrator, photographer, and author. Born in Punjab, India, Kaur immigrated to Canada at a young age with her family. She began performing poetry in 2009 and rose to fame on Instagram, eventually becoming a popular poet through her three collections of poetry. In March 2015, Kaur posted a series of photographs to Inst...

Rupi Kaur (Punjabi: ਰੂਪੀ ਕੌਰ; born 4 October 1992) is an Indian-Canadian poet, illustrator, photographer, and author. Born in Punjab, India, Kaur immigrated to Canada at a young age with her family. She began performing poetry in 2009 and rose to fame on Instagram, eventually becoming a popular poet through her three collections of poetry. In March 2015, Kaur posted a series of photographs to Instagram depicting herself with menstrual blood stains on her clothing and bedsheets. The photographs were taken as part of a visual rhetoric course at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Instagram removed the images, in response to which Kaur wrote a viral critique of the company's actions. As a result of the incident, Kaur's poetry gained more traction and her initially self-published debut poetry collection, Milk and Honey (2014), was reprinted by Andrews McMeel Publishing to widespread commercial success. Considered to be at the forefront of the "Instapoetry" style, Kaur's work is simplistic in language and explores South Asian identity, immigration, and femininity. Her childhood and personal life serve as sources of inspiration. Line drawings accompany her poetry with stark subject matter. After the success of Milk and Honey, Kaur describes struggling throughout the creation of her second collection, The Sun and Her Flowers (2017). Her third collection, Home Body (2020), is influenced by a desire to feel less pressure for commercial success and the COVID-19 pandemic. Kaur has a large social media following, particularly on Instagram. Since its release in 2014, her collection Milk and Honey has sold over 11 million copies and has been translated into 43 languages. Kaur's poetry has had mixed critical reception, having been praised for her influence and derided for her verse. Kaur has been included on congratulatory year-end lists by the BBC and Elle; The New Republic controversially called her the "Writer of the Decade". Early life Kaur was born into a Sikh family in Punjab, India, on 4 October 1992. At age three, she immigrated to Canada with her parents. Her father had left and was not present for Kaur's birth. Due to financial instability, he would send back supplies suitable for Kaur and her upbringing. She lived with her parents and three younger siblings in a one-bedroom basement flat, where they slept in the same bed. Her family eventually settled in Brampton, Ontario, alongside a large South Asian diaspora community, while Kaur's father worked as a truck driver. When her father lived in Japan, he would write Punjabi poetry to Kaur's mother, who practiced painting. At the age of five, Kaur was compelled to take up her mother's hobby of painting; she was given a paintbrush and forced to draw. Her mother wanted to instill this art in her since it was so close to home. Kaur recalled that poetry was a recurrent aspect of her faith, spirituality and everyday life: "There were evenings when my dad would sit around for hours, analyzing a single verse." As a child, Kaur would find herself embarrassed by her mother's accent and try to distance herself. Kaur was generally self-conscious about her identity. Her mother was occasionally distant to Kaur, as a result of her family and culture, particularly when Kaur was on her period; menstruating, alongside her childhood abuse, often left Kaur debilitated. Her relationship with her parents, in particular her mother, became turbulent in her adolescence; there were extensive arguments over mundane activities that Kaur later interpreted as a result of wishing to preserve their original culture. As a young child she witnessed relatives and friends experience domestic violence or sexual abuse; watching her parents be subject to racism, she inferred, resulted in her coy disposition. Her environment growing up led to her developing what she deemed "constant survival mode". She performed kirtan and Indian classical music for several years. Kaur aspired to be an astronaut or a social worker or a fashion designer; her ambitions changed frequently and her father prohibited her from studying the latter subject in university. She expressed an interest in reading from a young age, finding it relieved her loneliness. Her interest was hindered by having English as a second language, first learning it at age 10, although she considered her affinity for books as akin to a friendship. Her confidence and social skills grew in fourth grade. An initial aversion to English meant Kaur was effectively mute for some time. Throughout middle school she partook in "speech competitions", winning one in seventh grade, thus helping her find progress and hope despite isolation and bullying. According to Kaur, she was an easy target for ridicule due to her outward appearance and vulnerability. Kaur was subject to various comments about her appearance from her parents and peers. She had begun to grow in confidence following sixth grade and it was writing and performing that led her to "[find] her voice". She experienced the low point of her education during high-school, as she sustained, what she considered, toxic care. Her feelings were relieved upon forgoing people who she described as "very dangerous for me". Poetry brought her comfort as she dealt with being self-conscious – of literature, she read, among others, Amrita Pritam, Maya Angelou, Roald Dahl, Dr. Seuss and J. K. Rowling. Education Kaur attended Turner Fenton Secondary School in Brampton, Ontario, Canada, where she began to explore creative writing and poetry. After high school, she pursued a degree at the University of Waterloo, majoring in rhetoric and professional writing. She taught creative-writing classes for high school and college students. When studying poetry, she said that she would "agonize over each and every word." Career Early work (2009–2013) Kaur first began performing poetry in 2009. Although she found spoken-word poetry "really natural", describing her first show as "Like a damn hug", she'd fidget with the paper above her face, leaving before audiences clapped due to her anxiety. Her poetry at first received a lukewarm reception, having been told that she was too aggressive for certain venues or made some people uncomfortable. "So many people around me early on thought it was absolutely ridiculous". Kaur started writing in an attempt to articulate her personal trauma, having just left an abusive relationship – which influenced her decision to perform poetry: "I wanted to find a voice, because I had been voiceless for so long". At university, her writing became more reflective than before, having previously written about boys she liked and the political changes she wanted to see in the world – although she was, by her own admission, ignorant on the matter, her poems at first lambasted the Canadian government. Kaur would often be in conflict with her parents over her choice to pursue poetry. Throughout high school, Kaur shared her writing anonymously. She took the stage surname of Kaur because "Kaur is the name of every Sikh woman – brought in to eradicate the caste system in India – and I thought, wouldn't it be empowering if a young Kaur saw her name in a book store?". From 2013 onward, she began sharing her work without a pseudonym on Tumblr before moving to Instagram in 2014 where she started adding simple illustrations. Around this time, she began to garner a cult following and, at times, had 600 attendees at her shows, her career, thus far, having been subject to "[almost] word of mouth". Her first poem posted on Instagram regarded a wife coping with her husband's alcoholism; she described the experience as cathartic. Milk and Honey (2014–2016) At first submitted her poetry to literary anthologies, magazines and journals, to little success. Kaur's first book, Milk and Honey, was self-published on Createspace on 4 November 2014, after she began work at age 18. She created the poems in Milk and Honey "entirely for [herself], with zero concept of book in mind", and sold more than 10,000 copies. Kaur recalled that she was hesitant to submit to magazines or journals because it "felt like I was taking apart [Milk and Honey] and throwing things at different walls, hoping they would stick. I feel like it only made sense when it was [collected] because this is a body of work". In March 2015, as a part of her university photography project, Kaur – intending to challenge prevalent societal menstrual taboos and the objectification of women – posted a series of photographs to Instagram depicting herself with menstrual blood stains on her clothing and bed sheets. Internet trolls harassed Kaur over the photos, which were twice removed for not complying with the site's terms of service; Kaur claimed that she was not notified beforehand or given a reason and criticised their censorship as misogynistic and reaffirming what she sought to condemn – deeming the act an "attack on my humanity". Instagram apologized and brought back the images, citing a mistaken removal. Her response went viral, credited with bringing Kaur more followers and leading to the subsequent rise in popularity of her poetry. She later regretted writing her response, finding widespread disdain affected her mental health, experiencing anxiety that "sort of set in and never really left" and suicidal thoughts for a period of time. That same year, she wrote 10 chapters of a yet unpublished novel. As Kaur rose to prominence on social media, Milk and Honey was re-released by Andrews McMeel Publishing, which saw her work alongside an editor for the first time. It became a "blockbuster" success and, as of 2017, has sold 2.5 million copies worldwide and translated into 25 languages – the same year, it was the best-selling book in Canada. During a poetry reading in 2015, Kaur, upon seeing a line of her fans that extended four street blocks, fully realised the extent of her audience and grew more confident in her poetry as a result. She performed a TED Talk the next year. Kirsty Melville, publisher and president of AMP, credits the book's success to Kaur's connection to her readers. At age 22, she employed seven people to aid her, as a part of a company she founded. While writing, her team often manages her social media. She would later describe the success of Milk and Honey as surreal, noting a deeply sentimental and inspiring attachment. In August 2024, it was one of 13 books banned statewide by Utah's state board of education, on the grounds of its "objective sensitive material." The Sun and Her Flowers (2017–2019) Following a three-month writing trip in California, and in the same year as her induction into the Brampton Arts Walk of Fame, Kaur's second book, The Sun and Her Flowers, was published on 3 October 2017. She views it as a "one long continuous poem that goes on for 250 pages", "which while birthed in Instagram, is a concept that depends on being bound". As of 2020, the book has sold upwards of a million copies and has been translated into multiple languages. In 2018, she made nearly $1.4 million from poetry sales. That same year, she performed at the Jaipur Literary Festival: "It was as if I had waited my whole life for this moment. It was my only show, where I wasn't nervous. The crowd was energetic." While touring the world, she experienced feelings of depression and anxiety. The process of creating The Sun and Her Flowers and trying to replicate her success affected her mental health, reporting "furious 12-hour [writing] stretches" and 72-hour migraines. She experienced months of writer's block and frustration at her work, ultimately calling its creation the "greatest challenge of my life". Following its release, she dealt with feelings of burnout – writing the poem "Timeless" in response. These feelings began to subside as she viewed them as transient – aided by Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic, which she said "saved my life". By early 2019, she entered therapy to ease her depression and anxiety. Th