Kaur eventually learned English by the fourth grade and credited her love for spoken word poetry to community open microphone nights. After arriving in Canada, at the age of 5, Kaur began reading, drawing, writing poetry, and painting because she could not speak English and struggled to make friends. Her household continued to center the values of the Punjabi- Sikhs people as they spoke only the Punjabi language at home. Kaur was born in India and later moved to Canada at the age of four. Critics have sometimes referred to Kaur's work as ' Instapoetry' due to Kaur's usage of social media platform Instagram to market her poems and illustrations. The book's simplistic style and themes have drawn forth some negative criticism and alleged rumours about Kaur herself. Kaur has cited her cultural background as an inspiration for the book's style, as well as an attempt to make the book more accessible to a wide demographic or readers. These sections are titled 'the hurting', 'the loving', 'the breaking' and 'the healing'. The sections further explore the themes of violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity, accompanied by simple line art illustrations. The collection's themes feature aspects of survival, feminism and relationships, and is divided into four sections, with each section serving a different purpose and relevance to Kaur’s personal experiences. Milk and Honey (stylized in all lowercase as ' milk and honey') is an Indian-Canadian collection of both abstract fiction and non-fiction poetry and prose by Rupi Kaur.

Books like rupi kaur