Poetry collection by Rupi Kaur Milk and honey became a literary phenomenon when it was published a decade ago and secured a place on the New York Times On the bestseller list for 165 weeks. But it was a hard struggle to even get it published.
The author appeared on Marie Claire’s Podcast “Nice Talk” and talked about having to take a leap of faith and self-publish the book. Kaur explains in the podcast that when she was still in college and first considered publishing the book, Milk and honeyshe asked one of her creative writing professors for advice. But her professor “just interrupted me in the middle of my thought.”
She continues: “She said, ‘Yes, I’m sorry to tell you this, but nobody publishes poetry, and besides, most of the poetry that gets published is by dead people.'”
Kaur says she started thinking about self-publishing her work, but her professor also advised her against it. “She said, ‘Listen, once you self-publish, the industry isn’t going to respect you,'” Kaur recalls. “I thought, ‘Well, I’m a brown girl from Brampton. I’m invisible to the industry anyway. So, yeah, not self-publishing is the best advice I’ve ever taken.'”
Thanks to Kaur’s followers on Tumblr and Instagram, the book quickly developed a cult following after its release. Within a year, it was reprinted by Andrews McMeel Publishing. And now, for the 10th anniversary, Kaur is releasing a special anniversary collector’s edition.
Since entering the poetry scene, Kaur feels that “something has changed” in the publishing industry when it comes to poetry, especially in terms of better representation of women and writers of color. “They were forced to see us,” she says. “And forced to see that audiences and readers are hungry for work like ours.”
Kaur also recalls in “Nice Talk” how she began to struggle creatively amid her meteoric success, explaining that she felt “wracked with anxiety” as she worked on her second book, “The 2017.” the sun and its flowers.
“I was convinced that I had lost touch and the magic that I had,” she recalls. “That’s what fears do, right? They lie to you, they have your voice and they come from your head. So you think, ‘Well, that must be the truth.'”
Kaur says she convinced herself that she would “never” be able to experience the same creative flow as when writing Milk and honey as a teenager and in her early 20s, but “persevered anyway” because of her passion for the craft. She later also published in 2020 Homebody.
“The silver lining is that the flow state has returned and it’s really exciting,” she adds. “I hold on to it, but not too tightly. I just say, ‘Thank you for coming, and I’ll take you as long as you’re here. And then maybe you’ll decide to leave and that’s okay.'”
Kaur shares more about her experiences as a published poet, from addressing the people she writes about to dealing with financial anxiety in her career, on this week’s “Nice Talk.” The episode is available now wherever you listen to podcasts.
