Jackie Kay was born in Edinburgh, the adopted child of Scottish/Nigerian descent brought up by white parents in Glasgow. A poet, novelist and writer of short stories, she has enjoyed great acclaim for her work for both adults and children. In 2007 Bloodaxe Books published Darling: New & Selected Poems, which included almost all of her four previous books of poetry from Bloodaxe: The Adoption Papers (1991), Other Lovers (1993), Off Colour (1998), which was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize, and Life Mask (2005). Her epic poem The Lamplighter (Bloodaxe Books, 2008; Picador Poetry, 2020) was adapted for both radio and stage, and was followed by Fiere (Picador Poetry, 2011), The Empathetic Store (Mariscat Press, 2015), Bantam (Picador Poetry, 2017) and May Day (Picador Poetry, 2024). Picador also published three collections of her stories: Why Don’t You Stop Talking, Wish I Was Here, and Reality, Reality, and her memoir, Red Dust Road. From 2016-21 she was the third modern Makar, National Poet for Scotland. She lives in Manchester and is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Salford.
This biography of Jackie Kay is taken from the Bloodaxe Books and Picador websites.
