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.
  • BirthName: Jacqueline Margaret Kay
  • Nickname: Jackie Kay
  • Self-constructed: Ijeoma
    This Igbo name, meaning good journey, was given JK at her request by her birth father (who in the beginning had wanted her to be called Joy). Having been told she should have an Igbo name, she asked him for one, and chose this one from the two he offered.
    Kay, Jackie. Red Dust Road. Pan Macmillan, 2010.
    52, 107

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, 23 May 2010, 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. http://Bookshop.Blackwell.co.uk.
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, 23 May 2010, pp. New Review 10 - 13.
Review 11