Jackie Kay

**Jacqueline Margaret Kay** MBE FRSE (born 9 November 1961) is a Scots makar, playwricht an novelist, kent fur her wirks *Other Lovers* (1993), *Trumpet* (1996) an *Red Dust Road* (2011). Kay haes won mony awairds, sic as the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1998 an the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Book Awards in 2011.

She wis the third modren makar till 2021, appyntit in 2016. She wis appyntit as chancellor o the Varsity o Salford in 2015.

## Biographie
Kay wis born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1961, tae a Scots mither an a Nigerian faither. She wis taen in 1961 bi a white couple, Helen an John Kay, wha haed foregaun adoptit her brither Maxwell twa year aerlier. She wis upbrocht in The Briggs, Glesga. She an Maxwell hae mair sibs upbrocht bi thair birth parents.

Her adoptive faither wis a memmer o the Communist Party fu-time an stuid as a Memmer o Pairlament, an her adoptive mither wis Scots secretar o Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Durin her bairnheid she suffert racism frae bairns an teachers. In 2019, John Kay deet at the age o 94.

As a teen she haed thrift as a cleaner, wirkin fur David Cornwall, that scrieves unner the name John le Carré, fur fower month. She fand it tae be uissfu fur writers, as she cud listen in on fowk athoot suspeicion. Kay an Cornwall met again in 2019; he mindit her an haed been follaein her. In August 2007, she kythed in the fowert episode o the BBC Radio 4 series *The House I Grew Up In*, whaur she tawked aboot her bairnheid.

Oreeginally, she wantit tae be an actor, but decidit tae focus on scrievin efter taukin wi Alasdair Gray, a Scots poet an scriever, that haed read her poetry an telt her that scrievin wis whit she shid be duin. She studied Ingels at the Varsity o Stirlin an her first beuk o poetry, the pairt autobiographical *The Adoption Papers*, wis furthset in 1991 an won the Saltire Society Scottish First Book Award an a Scottish Arts Council Book Award in 1992.

Kay has wrate fur stage (in 1998 her play *Twice Over* wis the furst tae be produced bi the Gay Sweatshop Theatre Group), screen an fur bairns. Her drama *The Lightlamper*, an explorin o the Atlantic slave trade, wis braidcast on BBC Radio 3 in Mairch 2007 an pit intae poyum form in 2008.

In 2010, she furthset *Red Dust Road*, an accoont o her sairch fur her birth parents, that haed met whan her faither wis a student at the Varsity o Aiberdeen an her mither wis a nuirice. The beuk wis adaptit fur the stage bi Tanika Gupta an wis furst shawn in August 2019 at the Edinburgh International Festival in a production bi National Theatre of Scotland an HOME, at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh. She wis a participant in the Bush Theatre's 2011 projeck *Sixty-Six Books*, basin her piece on the Book of Esther frae the King James Bible.

She is the noo a professor o creative writin at the Varsity o Newcastle, an a Cultural Fellae o the Glesga Caledonian Varsity. In October 2014, it wis annoonced that she haed been appyntit as Chancellor o the Varsity o Salford, an that she wid be the varsity's writer in residence frae 1 Januar 2015. In Mairch 2016, she wis annoonced as the Scots Makar, succeedin Liz Lochhead whase tenure haed endit in Januar 2016.

She wis appyntit as a Memmer o the Order o the British Empire (MBE) in 2006 fur services tae leiterature, an Commander o the Order o the British Empire (CBE) in the 2020 New Years Honours, again fur services tae leiterature. On 23 October 2020, Kay wis annoonced as ane o the BBC's 100 Women.

## Personal life
Kay is a lesbian an bides in Manchester. She haes a son, Matthew (whase faither is the writer Fred D'Aguiar) an later she haed a 15-year relationship wi poet Carol Ann Duffy. Durin this relationship, Duffy gied birth tae a dochter, Ella, whase biological faither is poet Peter Benson.

## Awairds an honours
*2020: CBE, Services to Literature
*2016: The Scots Makar
*2016: Electit a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
*2011: Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Book of the Year Award, *Red Dust Road*
*2011: PEN/Ackerley Prize (shortlist), *Red Dust Road*
*2011: Costa Book Awards (shortlist), *Fiere*
*2011: Scottish Book of the Year (shortlist), *Fiere*
*2009: Scottish Book of the Year (shortlist), *The Lamplighter*
*2007: British Book Awards deciBel Writer of the Year
*2006: MBE, Services to Literature
*2003: Cholmondeley Award
*2000: International Dublin Literary Award (shortlist), *Trumpet*
*1998: Guardian Fiction Prize, *Trumpet*
*1994: Somerset Maugham Award, *Other Lovers*
*1992: Scottish First Book of the Year, *The Adoption Papers*
*1991: Eric Gregory Award

## Selectit warks
* *The Adoption Papers*, Bloodaxe Books, 1991,  (poetry)
* *Other Lovers*, Bloodaxe Books, 1993,  (poetry)
* *Off Colour*, Bloodaxe Books, 1998,  (poetry)
* *[[Trumpet (novel)|Trumpet]]* (fiction – 1998); Random House Digital, Inc., 2011, 
* *The Frog who dreamed she was an Opera Singer*, Bloomsbury Children's Books, 1998, 
* *Two's Company*, Puffin Books, 1994, 
* *Why Don't You Stop Talking* (fiction – 2002); Pan Macmillan, 2012, 
* *Strawgirl*, Macmillan Children's, 2002, 
* *Life Mask*, Bloodaxe Books, 2005,  (poetry)
* *Wish I Was Here* (fiction – 2006); Pan Macmillan, 2012, 
* **, Bloodaxe Books, 2007,  (poetry)
* *The Lamplighter*, Bloodaxe Books, 2008,  (poetry/radio play)
* *Red Cherry Red*, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2007, 
* *Maw Broon Monologues* (2009) (shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry)
*  (memoir)
* *Fiere*, Pan Macmillan, 2011,  (poetry)
* *Reality, Reality*, Pan Macmillan, 2012, 
* *The Empathetic Store*, Mariscat Press, 2015,  (poetry)

Ither poetry uised in GCSE Edexcel Syllabus
* *Brendon Gallacher*
* *Lucozade*
* *Yellow*

## References