Is Rupi Kaur the writer of the decade?

'Milk and Honey' author is a favourite of millennial “Instagram poetry," but Twitter has mixed reviews on the...

Canadian writer Rupi Kaur has been a favourite of millennial “Instagram poetry” fans for years. She catapulted to literary and mainstream stardom after the 2014 publication of her first book, the poetry collection Milk and Honey.

But is Kaur the writer of the decade? According to Rumman Alam from literary site the New Republic, she is. In an essay for the magazine, Alam admitted, “Kaur’s writing is not itself to my taste. But Kaur’s achievement as an artist is the extent to which her work embodies, formally, the technology that defines contemporary life: smartphones and the internet."

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He continued, "I’d argue that many of the writers currently being discussed as the most significant of the last decade write in direct opposition to the pervasive influence of the internet."

Kaur, who is not yet 30, already has numerous literary awards to her name. Stemming from Hoshiarpur, Punjab, she found herself on a New York Times Bestsellers List, selling 2.5 million copies of Milk and Honey. Kaur has also won Goodreads Choice Awards Best Poetry, as well as being listed in the BBC 100 Women in 2017.

However, many critical reviews of The Sun and Her Flowers author's literary works have been observably negative. Some of the main reoccurring themes reviewers seem to cite problems with are Kaurs' apparent lack of poetic form and depth.

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Alam noted this, saying, “That her work crumbles under traditional critical scrutiny is not really the point,” he wrote. “There are readers who will forever think of Kaur as the first poet they loved… Readers who know about poetry might think Kaur’s work is dumb; those for whom Kaur is their first exposure to the medium think it profound. It doesn’t matter if you believe that title of poet belongs only to the likes of Wallace Stevens or Gwendolyn Brooks. Kaur has seized it for herself. And she deserves it.”

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And Kaur has had her share of controversies to overcome too. A few years ago, Twitter users accused Kaur of plagiarising a fellow Tumblr poet, Nayyirah Waheed. At the same token, she's had many defenders of her work.

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In a 2017 piece for the Guardian, Priya Khaira-Hanks wrote, “Kaur speaks a truth that the literary establishment is unlikely to understand. To read Kaur’s success as an omen of the death of poetry would be to unfairly dismiss writing that contains bravery, beauty and wisdom.”

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On Twitter, reaction to Kaur being named the writer of the decade was mixed. One user wrote, "Clearly poetry is too subjective for anyone to be 'the best poet of the decade', and actually I don't like Rupi Kaur at all."

https://twitter.com/stuartmbuck/status/1209264056219131904

Another questioned, "Whatever about the quality of Rupi Kaur’s work or whether she deserves what she has - but all these articles giving her massive titles like “writer of the decade” based on the sheer fact that she became a millionaire through Instagram?

https://twitter.com/oliviagatwood/status/1209508634037587969

Meanwhile, others supported Kaur with another approach. "So far, I've only seen white men flipping out about Rupi Kaur being named the writer of the decade. Dear White Men, it's okay," one user said.

https://twitter.com/shaindelr/status/1209226009465081856

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