The Problem With Rupi Kaur's Poetry

Not many poets are able to say that Ariana Grande follows them on Instagram. Rupi Kaur, however, can: The 24-year-old Indian-born Canadian counts the Dangerous Woman singer among her 1.5 million Instagram followers. Indeed, Kaur's particular brand of celebrity is more akin to that of a pop star like Grande than a traditional poet. Her debut collection milk and honey, 200 sparse poems about love and loss, abuse and healing - first self-published in 2014 while Kaur was still in college - has sold over a million print copies and remained on the New York Times bestseller list for 52 consecutive weeks. Tickets for the London leg of her world tour in spring 2017 sold out in less than ten minutes. In July, when Kaur uploaded a series of Instagram posts to announce her forthcoming second poetry collection - the sun and her flowers, to be released on Oct. 3 by Simon & Schuster - each image racked up over 100,000 likes. Kaur's explosive success is largely due to her origins as a social media star, and she is not alone.