Why Rupi Kaur loves Harry Potter
'Growing up with Harry Potter made me feel that the impossible was possible.'
At a Toronto event celebrating the literary agency Cooke Agency's 25 years in business, Rupi Kaur, author of the bestselling poetry collection milk and honey, joined John Irving and Jeff VanderMeer onstage to discuss books that influenced them. The event was a fundraiser for First Book Canada.
Kaur, the poet who shot to fame through sharing her poetry on Instagram, revealed that one of her earliest influences was J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series.
"I had zero friends growing up. Books were really my only friends. Growing up with Harry Potter made me feel that the impossible was possible, which I think had a lot to do with why I started to write and perform poetry and keep doing it, even though so many people around me early on thought it was absolutely ridiculous."
Rupi Kaur's comments have been edited and condensed.