Rupi Kaur Popular Books

Rupi Kaur Biography & Facts

Rupi Kaur (born 4 October 1992) is a 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, as a part of her university photography project, Kaur posted a series of photographs to Instagram depicting herself with menstrual blood stains on her clothing and bedsheets. Instagram removed the image, 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 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 matters. 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 2.5 million copies in 25 languages, spending 77 weeks on the New York Times Best-Seller List. Kaur's poetry has had mixed critical reception: she has been praised for influencing the modern poetry scene, but has also been subject to parody and faced accusations of plagiarism by fellow poets. 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 before and wasn't 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'd 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. Also, 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 for hours". 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, become 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 Kaur having English as a second language, first learning it at age 10, although she considered her affinity for books as akin to a friendship. She only began to amass confidence and social skills in fourth grade.An initial aversion to English meant Kaur was effectively mute for a period of time. Throughout middle school she partook in "speech competitions", winning one in seventh grade, thus helping her find progress and hope in spite of 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 nadir 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 solace 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.She studied rhetoric and professional writing at the University of Waterloo; she'd teach creative-writing classes for high school and college students while in education herself. When studying poetry she'd "agonize over each and every word": "I would have to pull out the list of literary devices my teacher gave me and my 10 colorful pens. It was like doing surgery on the damn thing." 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.... Discover the Rupi Kaur popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Rupi Kaur books.