Jackie Kay

Bessie Smith by Jackie Kay review – a potent blues brew
This welcome reissue of the poet’s 1997 book about the ‘empress of the blues’ combines fact, personal memory and poetry to create an eloquent ‘herstory’
Kitty Empire
15, Feb, 2021 @7:00 AM

On my radar: Jackie Kay's cultural highlights
The Scottish poet laureate on the joy of Bridgerton, her lifelong love of Ella Fitzgerald, and an inventive Shakespearean memoir
Kadish Morris
06, Feb, 2021 @3:00 PM

Jackie Kay meets Brit Bennett: ‘I can't write about the pandemic. No part of me wants to revisit this year’
The poet laureate of Scotland and the author of The Vanishing Half talk about featuring on ‘black reading lists’, the fear of wasting time and that tricky second novel
Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff
19, Dec, 2020 @10:30 AM

Scottish national poet Jackie Kay talks about racism she endured as a child
Scotland’s makar recalls being taunted and beaten up by older boys as an eight-year-old and reflects on a much-changed country
Alison Flood
22, May, 2020 @1:43 PM

Carol Ann Duffy leads British poets creating 'living record' of coronavirus
Major names including Imtiaz Dharker, Jackie Kay and father-and-son poets Ian and Andrew McMillan to document outbreak in verse
Alison Flood
20, Apr, 2020 @5:01 AM

John Kay obituary
Other lives: Political organiser and activist who stood for parliament four times as a Communist party candidate
Jackie Kay
09, Feb, 2020 @5:21 PM

Jackie Kay selects Britain's 10 best BAME writers
The acclaimed poet and author introduces favourite authors who ‘open up the world to you and give you the world back’
Jackie Kay
05, Oct, 2019 @8:00 AM

Chiaroscuro review – Jackie Kay's play is more gig than theatre
Lynette Linton’s debut as artistic director is a musical revival of an undramatic piece about the dilemmas of four women
Michael Billington
09, Sep, 2019 @10:29 AM

Red Dust Road review – Jackie Kay adaptation loses its way
Sasha Frost sparkles as a curious and vulnerable Kay searching for her birth parents, but this unfocused production fails to capture the intimacy of the soul-searching memoir
Mark Fisher
15, Aug, 2019 @10:07 AM

Jackie Kay on putting her adoption on stage – and getting a pay rise for her successor
When Scotland’s national poet travelled to Nigeria to ask her birth father if he ever thought of her, he said no. Does it hurt to put this on stage? And should the next ‘makar’ be on £30,000?
Peter Ross
07, Aug, 2019 @3:50 PM

Jackie Kay and Tracy K Smith: what did one poet laureate say to the other?
When US poet laureate Tracy K Smith and Jackie Kay, Scotland’s equivalent, met for the first time, they had almost too much to talk about
Killian Fox
30, Jun, 2019 @7:00 AM

Hunt for next poet laureate still on as Imtiaz Dharker says no to job
Pakistani-born British poet declines ‘huge honour’ as speculation switches to remaining contenders to succeed Carol Ann Duffy
Alison Flood
03, May, 2019 @2:18 PM
1 / 7 pages