Jackie Kay

JK 's poetry, plays, and fiction explore issues of divided, displaced, or mixed identity. Her writings probe and challenge assumptions about race, gender, and sexuality with a mixture of pain and humour. She often draws her inspiration from jazz and blues musicians, particularly Bessie Smith and Billy Tipton . JK has also written a memoir about her search for her birth parents, and several children's books, as well as works for radio drama and performance poetry), opera, and audiocassette.
Photo of Jackie Kay taken during the annual Edinburgh International Book Festival. She is wearing brown tinted glasses and a dress with small            polka-squares that matches her earrings. she has short black hair.
"Jackie Kay" by Roberto Ricciuti, 2017-08-16. Retrieved from https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/scottish-poet-and-novelist-jackie-kay-attends-a-photocall-news-photo/832451196. This image is licensed under the GETTY IMAGES CONTENT LICENCE AGREEMENT.

Milestones

9 November 1961
Jacqueline Margaret (Jackie) Kay was born at Edinburgh in one of those appalling and judgmental mother-and-baby homes, to a teenage unmarried mother who was forced by Highland racism to have her adopted.
Kay, Jackie. “My other dad is an African prince”. The Observer, pp. New Review 10 - 13.
Review 11
21 August 1998
JK published her first novel, Trumpet, inspired by the life of jazz musician Billy Tipton .
Blackwell’s Online Bookshop.
Kay, Jackie. Trumpet. Picador, 1998.
prelims
“An Interview with Jackie Kay”. Bold Type, Vol. 3, No. 1.

Biography

Birth and Adoption

9 November 1961
Jacqueline Margaret (Jackie) Kay was born at Edinburgh in one of those appalling and judgmental mother-and-baby homes, to a teenage unmarried mother who was forced by Highland racism to have her adopted.
Kay, Jackie. “My other dad is an African prince”. The Observer, pp. New Review 10 - 13.
Review 11