| Jackie Kay was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1961 to a Scottish mother and a Nigerian father. She was adopted by a white couple at birth and was brought up in Glasgow, studying at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and Stirling University where she read English. The experience of being adopted by and growing up withing a white family inspired her first collection of poetry, The Adoption Papers (1991). The poems deal with an adopted child's search for a cultural identity and are told through three different voices: an adoptive mother, a birth mother and a daughter. The collection won a 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. |
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Biography
Jackie Kay was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1961 to a Scottish mother and a Nigerian father. She was adopted by a white couple at birth and was brought up in Glasgow, studying at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and Stirling University where she read English.
The experience of being adopted by and growing up withing a white family inspired her first collection of poetry, The Adoption Papers (1991). The poems deal with an adopted child's search for a cultural identity and are told through three different voices: an adoptive mother, a birth mother and a daughter. The collection 
won a 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 poems in Other Lovers (1993) explore the role and power of language, inspired and influenced by the history of Afro-Caribbean people, the story of a search for identity grounded in the experience of slavery. The collection includes a sequence of poems about the blues-singer Bessie Smith. Off Colour (1998) explores themes of sickness, health and disease through personal experience and metaphor. Her poems have appeared in many anthologies, and she has written widely for stage and television.
Her first novel, Trumpet, published in 1998, was awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize and was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Inspired by the life of musician Billy Tipton, the novel tells the story of Scottish jazz trumpeter Joss Moody whose death revealed that he was, in fact, a woman. Kay develops the narrative through the voices of Moody's wife, his adopted son and a journalist from a tabloid newspaper. Her books, Why Don't You Stop Talking (2002) and Wish I Was Here (2006), are collections of short stories, and she has also published a novel for children, Strawgirl (2002). Her collection of poetry for children, Red, Cherry Red (2007) won the 2008 CLPE Poetry Award.
Her novella, Sonata, was published in 2006; her book of poems Darling: New and Selected Poems in2007; and her dramatised poem, The Lamplighter, in 2008.
Jackie Kay lives in Manchester. In 2006, she was awarded an MBE for services to literature.
Bibliography
A Dangerous Knowing: Four Black Women Poets Sheba, 1984
Chiaroscuro Methuen, 1986
Gay Sweatshop: Four Plays and a Company (includes 'Twice Over') Methuen, 1989
Kay, Agard, D'Aguiar, Berry (audio-cassette) Bluefoot Cassette (British Library National Sound Archive), 1990
That Distance Apart Turret, 1991
The Adoption Papers Bloodaxe, 1991
Twice Through the Heart English National Opera, 1991
Two's Company Blackie, 1992
Other Lovers Bloodaxe, 1993
Hearsay: Performance Poems Plus (audio-cassette) 57 Production, 1994
Three Has Gone Blackie, 1994
Penguin Modern Poets 8 (Merle Collins, Jackie Kay and Grace Nichols) Penguin, 1996
Bessie Smith Absolute, 1997
Off Colour Bloodaxe, 1998
Teeth (audio-cassette) 57 Production, 1998
Trumpet Picador, 1998
The Frog Who Dreamed She was an Opera Singer Bloomsbury, 1999
Strawgirl Macmillan, 2002
Why Don't You Stop Talking Picador, 2002
International Connections: New Plays for Young People (contributor) Faber and Faber, 2003
Life Mask Bloodaxe, 2005
Sonata Picador, 2006
Wish I Was Here Picador, 2006
Darling: New and Selected Poems Bloodaxe, 2007
Red, Cherry Red Bloomsbury, 2007
The Lamplighter Bloodaxe, 2008
Prizes and awards
1991 Eric Gregory Award
1992 Forward Poetry Prize (commendation) The Adoption Papers
1992 Saltire Society Scottish First Book of the Year Award The Adoption Papers
1992 Scottish Arts Council Book Award The Adoption Papers
1993 Signal Poetry Award Two's Company
1994 Somerset Maugham Award Other Lovers
1998 Guardian Fiction Prize Trumpet
1999 Signal Poetry Award The Frog Who Dreamed She was an Opera Singer
2000 Authors' Club First Novel Award Trumpet
2000 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (shortlist) Trumpet
2003 Cholmondeley Award
2006 MBE
2007 British Book Awards Decibel Writer of the Year Wish I Was Here
2007 National Short Story Competition (shortlist - 'How To Get Away With Suicide')
2008 CLPE Poetry Award Red, Cherry Red
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