69 Facts About Rupi Kaur

Rupi Kaur was born on 4 October 1992 and is an Indian poet, illustrator, photographer, and author.

Rupi Kaur 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, Rupi Kaur posted a series of photographs to Instagram depicting herself with menstrual blood stains on her clothing and bedsheets.

Instagram removed the images, in response to which Rupi Kaur wrote a viral critique of the company's actions.

Rupi Kaur has a large social media following, particularly on Instagram.

Rupi Kaur's poetry has had mixed critical reception: she has been praised for influencing the modern poetry scene, but has been subject to parody and faced accusations of plagiarism by fellow poets.

Rupi 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".

Rupi Kaur was born into a Sikh family in Punjab, India, on 4 October 1992.

Rupi Kaur's father had left before and wasn't present for Kaur's birth.

Rupi Kaur lived with her parents and three younger siblings in a one-bedroom basement flat, where they slept in the same bed.

At the age of five, Rupi Kaur was compelled to take up her mother's hobby of painting; she was given a paintbrush and forced to draw.

Rupi Kaur's mother wanted to instill this art in her since it was so close to home.

Rupi Kaur's 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.

Rupi Kaur's environment growing up led to her developing what she deemed "constant survival mode".

Rupi Kaur performed kirtan and Indian classical music for several years.

Rupi 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.

Rupi Kaur expressed an interest in reading from a young age, finding it relieved her loneliness.

Rupi Kaur's 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.

An initial aversion to English meant Rupi Kaur was effectively mute for a period of time.

Rupi Kaur was subject to various comments about her appearance from her parents and peers.

Rupi Kaur had begun to grow in confidence following sixth grade and it was writing and performing that led her to "[find] her voice".

Rupi Kaur experienced the low point of her education during high-school, as she sustained, what she considered, toxic care.

Rupi Kaur's feelings were relieved upon forgoing people who she described as "very dangerous for me".

Rupi Kaur attended Turner Fenton Secondary School in Brampton, Ontario, Canada where she began to explore creative writing and poetry.

Rupi Kaur taught creative-writing classes for high school and college students.

Rupi Kaur created the poems in Milk and Honey "entirely for [herself], with zero concept of book in mind", and sold more than 10,000 copies.

Rupi Kaur's response went viral, credited with bringing Kaur more followers and leading to the subsequent rise in popularity of her poetry.

Rupi Kaur 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".

Rupi Kaur experienced months of writer's block and frustration at her work, ultimately calling its creation the "greatest challenge of my life".

Rupi Kaur considers Gibran an influence and has dubbed The Prophet her "life bible".

Rupi Kaur released her third poetry collection, Home Body, on 17 November 2020.

The collection features illustrations from Rupi Kaur and became one of the best-selling books of 2020.

Rupi Kaur stated that she sought to feel less pressure for commercial profit while writing the collection.

Rupi Kaur reached out to fellow authors for guidance because she had imposter syndrome due to Milk and Honey's success.

Rupi Kaur began work on the collection in 2018, during a time of depression, and concluded the process amidst a period of introspection, a by-product of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since Gurmukhi script has no concept of separate lower and upper case, her work is written exclusively in lowercase, using only the period as a form of punctuation; Rupi Kaur writes this way to honour the Punjabi language, her first language that she can speak and read, but limited to write in.

Rupi Kaur said that she enjoys the equality of letters and that the style reflects her worldview.

Rupi Kaur's printed poems are often excerpts from longer spoken-word work, publishing "the part that really made my stomach turn".

Rupi Kaur has said that she approaches her poetry like running a business and writes "to perform it", seeing the stage as where her ambitions are fully achieved.

Rupi Kaur's written poetry focus upon design, whereas her performances centre on rhyme, narrative and delivery.

Carol Muske-Dukes highlighted that, in being a "performative poet", Rupi Kaur continues a tradition of "the page enact[ing] [the performance] in the mind".

Rupi Kaur's illustrations, juxtaposed with the poems, are "striking" and "often disturbing", with one, for example, linking self-harm with despair.

Rupi Kaur explained that her style is intended to be recognisable and evoke a brand, akin to Apple's.

Rupi Kaur creates them following their respective poem being written.

Rupi Kaur has been said to be possibly the "representative of an entire generation's values and ethos".

Rupi Kaur refined her aesthetic into a more stylised manner following the release of Beyonce.

Rupi Kaur has described Beyonce as an influence, as well as Sharon Olds, Marina Abramovic, Adele, Kahlil Gibran, Nizzar Qabbani, Amrita Sher-Gil and Frida Kahlo.

Furthermore, Rupi Kaur takes inspiration from herself, her friends and her mother.

Rupi Kaur' poetry explores a small selection of themes alongside issues faced by Indian women and immigrants, female trauma and the "South Asian experience".

Eleanor Ty wrote that Rupi Kaur, by means of her poetry, "reveals a sophisticated understanding of the psychological complexities of family dynamics".

Rupi Kaur explored violence and trauma heavily in her early work because "I had this desire to unpack so many deeper emotions and issues that I'd seen affecting me and so many women around me".

Rupi Kaur has admitted that writing about these heavy subjects can be both cathartic and troublesome to her mental wellbeing.

Rupi Kaur writes in the second person in her most solemn depictions of domestic abuse, "as if [she] is attempting to distance herself from her experience of physical abuse".

Rupi Kaur said of the books that they are "inward" and "outward" journeys, respectively; The Sun and Her Flowers has more breadth of themes.

Rupi Kaur has instigated greater focus on poetry by booksellers, American adults and young people.

Rupi Kaur's poetry has been credited with "inspir[ing] [a] hub of creativity for young black girls"; author Tanya Byrne argued that fellow BAME writers should replicate Kaur's self-publishing.

Rupi Kaur has inspired various young poets to begin the practice.

Rupi Kaur received death threats, which led to emotional numbness and a subsequent distancing from social media.

Rupi Kaur noted an effect on her friends in Punjab, as they had frank discussions with their families regarding periods.

Rupi Kaur later admitted that for many years internet trolls had "left me broken", having previously dismissed such ideas.

Rupi Kaur's work have been the subject of memes online, usually in the form of parody poems mocking Kaur's writing style, their prominence having been compared to a cottage industry.

In 2017, a book parodying Rupi Kaur's poetry, entitled Milk and Vine, was released.

Rupi Kaur considers disdain for the fame her work has garnered to be analogous to the reception of contemporary art, seeing both as disparaged for being "easy".

Waheed and Shire, among Rupi Kaur's influences, have accused her of plagiarism.

Rupi Kaur has become "something of a polarizing figure in the literary, publishing, and media communities", whose "work is often knocked as being lowbrow or trite, or not in the rich tradition of serious poetry".

Rupi Kaur feels that her work can't be "fully reviewed or critiqued through a white lens or a Western one".

Tajja Isen disparaged what she regarded as an overly explanatory style, particularly when performed, arguing that Rupi Kaur's "belated imposition of rhythm" fails to conceal compositional shortcomings.

Watts considered Rupi Kaur to be more concerned with authenticity than the "traditional craft of poetry".

November 2023, Rupi Kaur declined an invitation to attend a Diwali celebration hosted by US Vice President Kamala Harris in the White House, citing the Biden administration's continued support of Israel and its bombardment of Gaza, which she called "the collective punishment of a trapped civilian population".