Home Body

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Milk and Honey and The sun and her flowers comes her greatly anticipated third collection of poetry.

Rupi Kaur constantly embraces growth, and in Home Body, she walks readers through a reflective and intimate journey visiting the past, the present, and the potential of the self. Home Body is a collection of raw, honest conversations with oneself – reminding readers to fill up on love, acceptance, community, family, and embrace change. illustrated by the author, themes of nature and nurture, light and dark, rest here.

I dive into the well of my body

and end up in another world

everything I need

already exists in me

there’s no need

to look anywhere else

The success of Milk and Honey proved worrisome for Kaur as she struggled throughout the creation of the follow-up, The Sun and Her Flowers (2017). Feelings of burnout occurred after the release but soon subsided. A desire to feel less pressure for commercial success influenced her third collection, Home Body (2020) – a partial response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Considered to be a part of the “Instapoetry” group, Kaur’s work is simplistic in nature 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.

Her popularity has been compared to that of a popstar and Kaur has been praised for influencing the modern literary scene, although Kaur’s poetry has had mixed critical reception and been subject to frequent parody; she has been dogged by claims of plagiarism by fellow “Instapoets” and harassment by internet trolls. 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”.