Jackie Kay

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Jackie Kay MBE (born 1961) is a Scottish poet and novelist. She was born in Edinburgh in 1961 to a Scottish mother and a Nigerian father. She was adopted by a white couple and brought up in Bishopbriggs, a suburb of Glasgow.

Initially harbouring ambitions to be an actress, she decided to concentrate on writing after Alasdair Gray read her poetry and told her that writing was what she should be doing. She studied English at the University of Stirling and her first book of poetry (The Adoption Papers) was published in 1991, winning the Saltire Society Scottish First Book Award. Other awards include a Somerset Maugham (for Other Lovers) and the Guardian Fiction Prize (for Trumpet), and she writes extensively for children, stage and screen. She has a son, Matthew, and until 2004 lived in Manchester with the poet Carol Ann Duffy.

Kay was created a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) on 17 June 2006.