Jackie Kay

(1961 – present) - Glasgow

Jackie Kay

Jackie Kay was born in Edinburgh to a Scottish mother and a Nigerian father. She was subsequently adopted by a white couple from Glasgow and grew up there. Her adoptive parents, with whom she remains very close, were Communists and often took the children to anti-apartheid protests and peace rallies.

After school Jackie attended the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, where she took acting classes with the hope of becoming an actress. However, when some of her poems made it to the writer Alasdair Gray, he suggested that she had the talent to write and Kay enrolled in Stirling University, where she read English.

Jackie is a renowned poet, playwright and author, who was first published in 1991, with her collection of poetry, The Adoption Papers. This book reflected her own experiences as a black child being raised by a white family.

The Adoption Papers won the Scottish Arts council Book Award, the Saltire Society Scottish First Book of the Year Award and a commendation by the Forward Poetry Prize judges in 1992. The collection was also broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 1990.

Her first novel, Trumpet, was published in 1998 and was awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize. It was also short-listed for the international IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. The book is based on the life of the jazz musician Billy Tipton, who had fooled five wives and many band members into believing him to be a man. In fact Dorothy Tipton decided to dress like a man in 1933 and wasn't discovered until medical intervention revealed the truth on his deathbed. Jackie has also written an account of the life of jazz singer Bessie Smith.

In 2002 Jackie published a collection of short stories, Why Don't You stop Talking, and her first children's book, Strawgirl. Her latest collection of poetry, Darling, was published in 2007.

She has one son, born in 1988, and lives in Manchester.

  • Cover scan of The Adoption Papers
    The Adoption Papers
    This work tells the story of a black girl's adoption by a white Scottish couple. The story is told from three different viewpoints - the mother, the birth mother and the daughter.
  • Cover scan of Darling
    Darling: New & Selected Poems
    'Darling' brings together many favourite poems from Kay's four collections, 'The Adoption Papers, 'Other Lovers', 'Off Colour' and 'Life Mask', as well as featuring new work, some previously uncollected poems, and some lively poetry for younger readers.
  • Cover scan of Life Mask
    Life Mask
    Jackie Kay's 'Life Mask' is about love, loss, secrets and mistaken identity. These searching poems reveal the many ways people hide from each other and from themselves.
  • Cover scan of Off Colour
    Off Colour
    These poems explore illness, sickness and health, past and present, in a dynamic and original way. They examine not only the sick body but the sick mind and sick society, racism and prejudice. It is Jackie Kay's third collection.
  • Cover scan of Other Lovers
    Other Lovers
    Jackie Kay explores the qualities of love in a variety of relationships, moving from the familiar, such as a parent, child or lover, to the extraordinary, including a sequence on Bessie Smith.
  • Cover scan of Sonata
    Sonata
    'Picador Shots', a series of cheap, pocket-sized books, will introduce 12 intoxicating short stories from 12 of Picador's most exciting writers. They will be rich reading for the time poor and the ultimate quick, quality read.
  • Cover scan of Strawgirl
    Strawgirl
    Growing up on a Highland farm in a white community, 11-year old Maybe MacPherson hates her mixed-race roots, being half Celtic and half Nigerian Ibo. When coping with the death of her father and fighting local bullies, the magical Strawgirl helps Maybe discover the courage that lies within her.
  • Cover scan of Trumpet
    Trumpet
    Joss Moody has died and the jazz world is in mourning. But in death, Joss can no longer guard the secret he kept all his life, and Colman, his son, must confront the truth: the man he believed to be his father was, in fact, a woman.
  • Cover scan of Why Don't You Stop Talking
    Why Don't You Stop Talking
    Following on from Kay's award-winning first novel, 'Trumpet', comes a collection of superlative stories. The stories cover emotional and narrative terrain, from an immaculate observation of the female physiognomy to the bewilderment of the elderly.
  • Cover scan of Wish I Was Here
    Wish I Was Here
    In this collection of stories, Jackie Kay explores every aspect of love - the most overwhelming and complicated of human emotions, exposing the moments of tenderness, shock, bravery and remorse that accompany its pursuit, its passions, its passing.

Bibliography