“Get ready to see ‘salt’. EVERYWHERE,” she added.

Nearly a decade after Rupi Kaur’s milk and honey became a global publishing success, poet Nayyirah Waheed has reignited their long-running literary dispute, raising allegations involving literary recognition, race, cultural appropriation and the treatment of Black women writers.

Waheed recently took to Instagram to accuse Kaur of taking credit for what she describes as her literary innovation in salt, which she self-published in 2013. She also announced that salt would be distributed in stores internationally, giving readers wider access to the work she considers the original.

“Rupi Kaur, since you took credit for my blueprint/literary innovation ‘salt’ (in front of the whole world) — I’ll also take the credit for those 11-12+ million copies of Milk and Honey,” Waheed wrote.

She further claimed credit for the millions generated through the book’s global sales and the wider popularity of the poetry style associated with it.

“Get ready to see ‘salt’. EVERYWHERE,” she added.

Nayyirah Waheed Raises Broader Questions About Recognition

Waheed also placed the dispute within a broader history of artists and writers accusing others of taking elements from their work. In her posts, she referenced disputes involving Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton and Elvis, Little Richard and Pat Boone, Richard Berry and The Kingsmen, and Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon and Led Zeppelin.

Her latest comments came days after she published a lengthy statement on September 11 directly addressing Kaur and her team.

Waheed alleged that Kaur and her representatives had not responded to an invitation for a formal discussion mediated by a major media organisation.

According to Waheed, the dispute has moved beyond the question of similarities between the two poets’ work. She accused Kaur of what she described as “silence and erasure tactics” while continuing her public career and performances.

Waheed also framed the controversy around issues she described as “Anti-Blackness, Racism, Erasure, Appropriation, and Cultural Extraction,” arguing that Black writers, particularly Black women, can be treated as sources of creative material without receiving recognition or accountability.

She further alleged that Kaur’s fame and position within the mainstream publishing industry had allowed her to avoid addressing the accusations.

Dispute Dates Back to the Rise of milk and honey

Waheed self-published Salt in 2013, while Kaur released Milk and Honey in 2014. Kaur’s collection subsequently became one of the most commercially successful poetry books of the 21st century.

According to Kaur’s publisher, the book has sold more than seven million copies worldwide and has been translated into more than 40 languages.

The similarities between the two collections have been debated for years. Critics have pointed to similarities involving minimalist poetry, short-form writing, lowercase text, and the presentation of poetry on social media.

However, those literary techniques were not created exclusively by either poet and have appeared in different forms in poetry and other writing before the two collections were published.

A 2017 analysis by The Varsity described what it considered “hyper similarity” and instances of paraphrasing, while stopping short of definitively concluding that Kaur’s work constituted plagiarism.

The Guardian also reported on the controversy, noting similarities in the poets’ approaches to short, confessional poetry and Waheed’s claims that Kaur had not addressed her concerns.

Rupi Kaur Previously Responded to the Allegations

Kaur was asked directly about Waheed’s accusations in a 2018 interview.

At the time, Kaur rejected the idea that either poet owned the literary form under discussion. She pointed to earlier writers who had used lowercase writing and short-form poetry, arguing that these techniques predated both poets.

The disagreement has therefore remained contested, with Waheed maintaining that the similarities go beyond shared literary techniques, while Kaur has previously argued that the form itself cannot be claimed by either writer.

Waheed’s latest statements have expanded the dispute into a wider discussion about race, publishing power, cultural recognition and the economics of literary success.

There has been no reported legal ruling or institutional finding establishing that Kaur plagiarised salt. The latest development consists of Waheed’s public statements and renewed allegations.

Nearly a decade after milk and honey helped establish Kaur as a globally recognised literary figure, Waheed’s decision to publicly revisit the controversy has once again brought the long-running dispute into the spotlight.