Participant Image (270 x 155 px):

Jackie Kay, Scottish poet and novelist was born in Edinburgh, to a Scottish mother and a Nigerian father. She was then adopted by a Scottish couple, and brought up in a suburb in Glasgow. Her first book of poetry, the partly autobiographical The Adoption Papers, was published in 1991. It won the Saltire Society Scottish First Book Award. She has also won the 1994 Somerset Maugham Award for Other Lovers, and the Guardian Fiction Prize for Trumpet, her first novel, based on the life of musician Billy Tipton. She writes extensively for children, stage and screen. Kay became a Member of the Order of the British Empire on 17 June 2006. Her novella, Sonata was published in 2006 and her collection of poems Darling: New and Selected Poems in 2007. Her dramatized poem, The Lamplighter (2008) looks at the Atlantic slave trade, and was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in March 2007 and published in poem form in 2008. She currently teaches creative writing at Newcastle University.

http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth54 - More about Jackie Kay from Contemporary Writers.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/jan/12/fiction.features - Jackie Kay discusses identity with The Guardian.

Jackie Kay will be featured at the following events:

Friday 29 January, 11.15 AM - 12.15 PM, Maritime Museum: Adoption Papers

Friday 29 January, 8.00 PM onwards, Tamarind Hill: Burns' Supper

Saturday 30 January, 12.30 PM - 2.00 PM: A Private Affair!

Saturday 30 January, 3.30 PM - 4.30 PM, Hall de Galle: Strange Heroes

Sunday 31 January, 3.30 PM - 5.30 PM, Dutch House: Tea Party

Click on Programme for more details about these events!