Poetry
Category: Individual Collections, Poetry
Number of pages: 66
ISBN: 9781781727881
Publication date: February 2, 2026
Price: £10.99
“…a homage to (brown girl) girlhood into womanhood… tender, sharp, funny and jubilant…” – Rachel Long
This tender and laugh-out-loud collection weaves a poetic narrative of transformation – from girl to woman. The poems read like a long phone call – to your younger self, your mother and your artist-godmothers – following a girl as she learns to live in her body, claim her voice and awaken her own power. Intimately woven with the poet’s Panjabi heritage, Tigress with Wings is a celebration of feminine strength, creativity and survival in which the fierce, mythical tigress becomes an empowering emblem for adulthood.
Rupinder Kaur Waraich
Rupinder Kaur Waraich (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist based in the West Midlands, working across poetry, writing, performance, and film. Her creative practice centres feminine narratives, identity, and the emotional landscapes of women’s lives. Her debut poetry collection Rooh was published by Verve Poetry Press in 2018. Rupinder’s poetry and writing have featured in various magazines and journals, and she frequently collaborates across disciplines, bringing poetry into conversation with movement, theatre, and visual art.
As a BBC New Creative, she created The Girls That Hide and Seek, a spoken word piece addressing gendered violence. Her short film The Two Artists, which she co-wrote and acted in, premiered at the UK Asian Film Festival in 2023, and her upcoming film Last Photo is currently in post-production. She has also devised theatre with companies across the Midlands and taken part in residencies at JOYA Arte (Spain), Art House (Holland), and Preet Nagar (Panjab). Rupinder’s recent work includes performance art films such as Meeting Kali and The Search, which blend poetry, dance, and film. Her practice is rooted in curiosity, connection, and creative exploration.
Neil Leadbeater, Write Out Loud
“Rupinder is an extraordinary artist whose poems are both unflinchingly fierce and radically graceful. Rupinder’s work is charged with the intricacies of life and more-than-life. There’s joy in her love and love in her joy.”
Supriya Kaur Dhaliwal, author of ‘The Yak Dilemma’
“Rupinder is a timeless, groundbreaking artist who uses writing as a tool to explore Panjabi folk tale, mythology and to elevate feminine voice in her multidisciplinary practice. Her poetic voice is carefully crafted, interspersed with such spellbinding musicality reminiscent of the great power and responsibility qawwals hold. Here is a poet dedicated to her poetic craft on a soul level.”
Nafeesa Hamid, author of ‘Besharam’
“Words flit through the poems shedding the eastern wear in the River Beas, far away in the Punjab, and dance naked into another life then coming to her hometown Birmingham. Her mind dances scattering words that link the present and past in a magical symphony of sorts. She is a contemporary poet that holds onto the legacy of the great writers of Panjab.”
Nirupama Dutt
“Rupinder Kaur Waraich’s question reverberates beyond the frame: ‘What if I don’t become the artist I dream of?’ Tigress With Wings evokes the precarious, pulsing space between making and being. Rupinder breaks the ghazal form, assembling ‘unfinished fragments’ in arrangements that fluoresce in the ‘dark orb pitch.’ But perhaps my favourite poem in this entire collection was the penultimate one: ‘Amrita Sher-Gil and Frida Kahlo Split a Blunt.’ A burst of pleasure, just to read that title, don’t you think?”
Bhanu Kapil
“Sensual, jasmine-infused, and dreamlike, this is an ode, an anthem, a homage to (brown girl) girlhood into womanhood; to that pesky, awkward, beautiful bit in between… tender, sharp, funny and jubilant…”
Rachel Long, author of ‘My Darling from the Lions’
