Canadian writer Rupi Kaur has been a favorite of millennial “Instagram poetry” fans for years, and she gained an even bigger following after the 2014 publication of her first book, the poetry collection Milk and Honey.

But is she the writer of the decade? Author Rumaan Alam, writing for the New Republic, thinks so.

In an essay for the magazine, Alam admits that “Kaur’s writing is not itself to my taste.”

But, he says, “Kaur’s achievement as an artist is the extent to which her work embodies, formally, the technology that defines contemporary life: smartphones and the internet.”

“That her work crumbles under traditional critical scrutiny is not really the point,” he writes. “There are readers who will forever think of Kaur as the first poet they loved… Readers who know about poetry might think Kaur’s work is dumb; those for whom Kaur is their first exposure to the medium think it profound. It doesn’t matter if you believe that title of poet belongs only to the likes of Wallace Stevens or Gwendolyn Brooks. Kaur has seized it for herself. And she deserves it.”

Kaur’s poetry has frequently been mocked on social media by readers who find it simplistic and lacking in literary merit. But she’s had her share of defenders before. In a 2017 piece for the Guardian, Priya Khaira-Hanks wrote, “Kaur speaks a truth that the literary establishment is unlikely to understand… to read Kaur’s success as an omen of the death of poetry would be to unfairly dismiss writing that contains bravery, beauty and wisdom.”

On Twitter, reaction to Kaur being named the writer of the decade was mixed:

Michael Schaub is an Austin, Texas–based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.