Rupi Kaur is an Indian-Canadian poet, writer, illustrator, and performer. She is a New York Times Bestselling Author, who wrote, illustrated, and self-published her first poetry collection, Milk and Honey, in 2014. The poetry collection has sold over 3 million times. It has also been translated into 25 languages.
Rupi Kaur was born into a Sikh family in Punjab, India. At 3, she emigrated to Canada with her parents and three younger siblings. They settled in Brampton, Ontario, alongside a large South Asian diaspora community.
As a young child, she witnessed relatives and friends experience domestic violence or sexual abuse; watching her parents be subject to racism, Rupi Kaur inferred, resulted in her coy disposition.
Kaur has English as a second language, first learning it at age 10. She only began to amass confidence and social skills in fourth grade. Most of all, she liked to read Amrita Pritam, Maya Angelou, Roald Dahl, Dr. Seuss, and J. K. Rowling.
Rupi Kaur studied rhetoric and professional writing at the University of Waterloo. She combined her studies with teaching creative writing to high school and college students.
Kaur first started performing poetry in 2009 at 17. Throughout high school, she anonymously shared her writing, but in 2013 she began sharing her work under her name on Tumblr. Kaur took her writing to Instagram in 2014 and began adding simple illustrations. All her work is written exclusively in lowercase.
In the Gurmukhi script, there is only one case and only periods are used. She decided to write this way to honor her culture. She also says that she enjoys the equality of letters and that the style reflects her worldview. Her written work is meant to be an experience that is easy to follow for the reader, with simple drawings to elevate her words.
Common themes found throughout her works include abuse, femininity, love, and heartbreak. Kaur's first book, an anthology titled Milk and Honey (stylized as milk and honey), was published on November 4th, 2014.
A collection of poetry, prose, and hand-drawn illustrations, the book is split into four chapters. Each chapter deals with a different theme. The book was on The New York Times Best Seller list for over 165 weeks.
Next came its artistic siblings, The Sun and Her Flowers and Home Body, both debuting on bestseller lists worldwide. These collections have sold more than 11 million copies and have been translated into over 43 languages.
In 2022 she released her 4th book Healing Through Words, a journey of guided writing exercises to help the reader explore their creativity.
Photo credit: rupikaur.com
