Jackie Kay CBE FRSE FRSL
Kay in 2015
Makar
In office 15 March 2016 – 14 March 2021
Preceded by	Liz Lochhead
Succeeded by	Kathleen Jamie
Personal details
Born	Jacqueline Margaret Kay (1961-11-09)9 November 1961 (age 63) Edinburgh, Scotland
Alma mater	University of Stirling
Occupation	Professor of creative writing atNewcastle University
Known for	Poet and novelist Makar, 2016–2021
Awards	Somerset Maugham Award (1994);Guardian Fiction Prize (1998);Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Book of the Year Award (2011)

Jacqueline Margaret Kay (born 9 November 1961), is a Scottish poet, playwright, and novelist, known for her worksOther Lovers (1993),Trumpet (1998) andRed Dust Road (2011).^[1][2] Kay has won many awards, including theSomerset Maugham Award in 1994, theGuardian Fiction Prize in 1998 and theScottish Mortgage Investment Trust Book of the Year Award in 2011.^[3][4]

From 2016 to 2021, Jackie Kay was theMakar, thepoet laureate ofScotland.^[5][6] She wasChancellor of theUniversity of Salford between 2015 and 2022.^[7]

Jackie Kay was born inEdinburgh, Scotland, in 1961, to a Scottish mother and aNigerian father. She wasadopted as a baby by a white Scottish couple, Helen and John Kay, and grew up inBishopbriggs, a suburb ofGlasgow.^[8] They adopted Jackie in 1961, having already adopted her brother, Maxwell, about two years earlier. Jackie also has siblings who were brought up by her biological parents.^[9]

Her adoptive father worked for theCommunist Party full-time and stood forMember of Parliament,^[8] and her adoptive mother was the Scottish secretary ofCampaign for Nuclear Disarmament. As a child, Kay sufferedracism from children and teachers at school.^[10] John Kay died in 2019 at the age of 94.^[11] Helen Kay died in 2021^[12] at age 90.

As a teenager she worked as a cleaner, working forDavid Cornwell—who wrote under the pen-name John le Carré—for four months. She recommended cleaning work to aspiring writers, saying: "It's great ... You're listening to everything. You can be a spy, but nobody thinks you're taking anything in." Cornwell and Kay met again in 2019; he remembered her and had been following her.^[10]

In August 2007, Kay was featured in the fourth episode of theBBC Radio 4 seriesThe House I Grew Up In, in which she talked about her childhood.^[2]

Initially thinking of being an actor, she decided to concentrate on writing afterAlasdair Gray, a Scottish artist and writer, read her poetry and told her that writing was what she should be doing.^[13] She studied English at theUniversity of Stirling and her first book of poetry, the partially autobiographical,The Adoption Papers, was published in 1991 and won theSaltire SocietyScottish First Book Award and aScottish Arts Council Book Award in 1992.^[14] It is a multiple voiced collection of poetry that deals with identity, race, nationality,gender, andsexuality from the perspectives of three women: an adopted biracial child, her adoptive mother, and her biological mother. Her other prizes include the 1994Somerset Maugham Award forOther Lovers, and theGuardian Fiction Prize forTrumpet, inspired by the life of American jazz musicianBilly Tipton, a transgender man.^[15]

In 1997, Kay published a biography of blues singerBessie Smith; it was reissued in 2021.^[16] An abridged version read by the author featured asBBC Radio 4'sBook of the Week in the last week of February 2021.^[17]

Kay writes extensively for stage (in 1988 her playTwice Over was the first by a Black writer to be produced by Gay Sweatshop Theatre Group),^[18] screen and for children. Her dramaThe Lamplighter is an exploration of theAtlantic slave trade. It was broadcast onBBC Radio 3 in March 2007, produced byPam Fraser Solomon, during a season marking the bicentenary of theSlave Trade Act 1807,^[19][20][21] and was published in printed form as a poem in 2008.^[22]

In 2010 Kay publishedRed Dust Road, an account of her search for her biological parents, who had met each other when her father was a student atAberdeen University and her mother was a nurse. The book was adapted for the stage byTanika Gupta and premiered in August 2019 at theEdinburgh International Festival in a production byNational Theatre of Scotland andHOME, at theRoyal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh.^[23] Comparisons have been drawn between this work andLooking for Transwonderland byNoo-Saro-Wiwa.^[24]

She is currently Professor of Creative Writing atNewcastle University,^[25] and Cultural Fellow atGlasgow Caledonian University. Kay lives inManchester. She took part in theBush Theatre's 2011 projectSixty-Six Books, her piece being based on the book ofEsther from theKing James Bible.^[26] In October 2014, it was announced that she had been appointed as the Chancellor of theUniversity of Salford, and that she would be the university's "Writer in Residence" from 1 January 2015.^[27]

In March 2016, Kay was announced as the nextScots Makar (national poet of Scotland), succeedingLiz Lochhead, whose tenure ended in January 2016.^[28][29]

She was appointedMember of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the2006 Birthday Honours for services to literature, andCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the2020 New Year Honours, again for services to literature.^[30][31] Kay was on the list of the BBC's100 Women announced on 23 November 2020.^[32]

In September 2024, it was announced that theNational Library of Scotland had acquired Kay's literary archive.^[33]

Kay is alesbian.^[34][35] In her twenties she gave birth to a son, Matthew (whose father is the writerFred D'Aguiar), and later she had a 15-year relationship with poetCarol Ann Duffy.^[36][37] During this relationship, Duffy had a daughter, Ella, whose biological father is fellow poetPeter Benson.^[37][38]

External videos
Jackie Kay, vimeo format[39]

• 1991:Eric Gregory Award
• 1992:Scottish First Book of the Year,The Adoption Papers
• 1994:Somerset Maugham Award,Other Lovers
• 1998:Guardian Fiction Prize,Trumpet
• 2000:International Dublin Literary Award (shortlist),Trumpet
• 2003:Cholmondeley Award
• 2006:MBE, Services to Literature^[40]
• 2007:British Book Awards deciBel Writer of the Year
• 2009:Scottish Book of the Year (shortlist),The Lamplighter
• 2011:Scottish Book of the Year (shortlist),Fiere
• 2011:Costa Book Awards (shortlist),Fiere
• 2011:PEN/Ackerley Prize (shortlist),Red Dust Road
• 2011:Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Book of the Year Award (Non-Fiction category),Red Dust Road^[41]
• 2016: Elected a Fellow of theRoyal Society of Edinburgh^[42]
• 2016:The Scots Makar
• 2020:CBE, Services to Literature^[43]

• The adoption papers,Bloodaxe Books, 1991,ISBN 9781852241568 (poetry)
• Other Lovers, Bloodaxe Books, 1993,ISBN 9781852242534 (poetry)
• Off Colour, Bloodaxe Books, 1998,ISBN 9781852244200 (poetry)
• Trumpet (fiction – 1998); Random House Digital, Inc., 2011,ISBN 9780307560810
• The Frog who dreamed she was an Opera Singer, Bloomsbury Children's Books, 1998,ISBN 9780747538660
• Two's Company, Puffin Books, 1994,ISBN 9780140369526
• Bessie Smith (biography – 1997), Faber & Faber, 2021,ISBN 978-0571362929
• Why Don't You Stop Talking (fiction – 2002); Pan Macmillan, 2012,ISBN 9781447206729
• Strawgirl, Macmillan Children's, 2002,ISBN 9780330480635
• Life Mask, Bloodaxe Books, 2005,ISBN 9781852246914 (poetry)
• Wish I Was Here (fiction – 2006); Pan Macmillan, 2012,ISBN 9781447206736
• Darling: New & Selected Poems, Bloodaxe Books, 2007,ISBN 9781852247775 (poetry)
• The Lamplighter, Bloodaxe Books, 2008,ISBN 9781852248048 (poetry/radio play)
• Red, Cherry Red, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2007,ISBN 9780747589792
• Maw Broon Monologues (2009) (shortlisted for theTed Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry)
• Red Dust Road: An Autobiographical Journey. Atlas and Company. 2011.ISBN 9781935633358.Jackie Kay. (memoir)
• Fiere, Pan Macmillan, 2011,ISBN 9781447206576 (poetry)
• Reality, Reality, Pan Macmillan, 2012,ISBN 9781447204404
• The Empathetic Store, Mariscat Press, 2015,ISBN 9780946588794 (poetry)
• Bantam, Pan Macmillan, 2017,ISBN 9781509863174 (poetry)
• May Day, Picador, 2024,ISBN 9781509864836 (poetry)

Some other poetry used inGCSE Edexcel Syllabus

• "Brendon Gallacher"
• "Lucozade"
• "Yellow"

• Twice Through the Heart – opera with libretto by Kay.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toJackie Kay.

Wikiquote has quotations related toJackie Kay.

• Transcript of interview withRamona Koval,The Book Show,ABC Radio National, 4 September 2008, recorded at Edinburgh International Book Festival, 2008
• Poetry Archive: Jackie Kay
• Biography, bibliography, prizes and awards, critical review and related links
• Streamed poetry read by Jackie Kay
• Bibliography, prizes and awards
• Guardian article (01/2002)
• Books From Scotland interview (12/2005)
• Free Verse interview (2002/01)
• Bold Type interview
• Audio interview with Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 2006.
• Bessie Smith by Jackie Kay; BBC Sounds

• Living people
• 1961 births
• 20th-century Scottish dramatists and playwrights
• 20th-century Scottish LGBTQ people
• 20th-century Scottish novelists
• 20th-century Scottish poets
• 20th-century Scottish women writers
• 21st-century Scottish dramatists and playwrights
• 21st-century Scottish LGBTQ people
• 21st-century Scottish novelists
• 21st-century Scottish poets
• 21st-century Scottish women writers
• Academics of Newcastle University
• Alumni of the University of Stirling
• Black British women academics
• British women academics
• Black British academics
• Black British women writers
• Black British writers
• Chancellors of the University of Salford
• Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
• Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
• Lambda Literary Award winners
• Lesbian dramatists and playwrights
• Lesbian novelists
• Lesbian poets
• Black British LGBTQ people
• 21st-century Black British people
• 20th-century Black British people
• Nigerian adoptees
• People from Bishopbriggs
• Scots Makars
• Scottish adoptees
• Scottish lesbian writers
• Scottish LGBTQ dramatists and playwrights
• Scottish LGBTQ novelists
• Scottish LGBTQ poets
• Scottish people of Nigerian descent
• Scottish women dramatists and playwrights
• Scottish women novelists
• Scottish women poets
• Writers from Edinburgh
• Writers from Glasgow

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