Jackie Kay was born in Edinburgh in 1961 to a Scottish mother and Nigerian
father, and was adopted at birth by a white couple living in Glasgow. She
had a happy childhood, in spite of racial bullying at school, and remains
close to her adoptive parents. The birth of her own son spurred her to trace
her natural mother. She has said that 'All writers draw on their own
experience and a lot of my experience has been heightened'. Thus her poem
sequence 'The Adoption Papers' considers the experience of adoption, while
the consciousness of being black in Britain, and concerns with gender
identity (she identified herself as lesbian early on), are also constants in
her work.

At first Kay wanted to be an actress and attended part-time classes at the
Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow. She was encouraged
towards writing when a teacher sent some of her poems to Alasdair
Gray, who recognised their merit and told her that she really was a
writer.

She studied English at the University of Stirling and then moved to London,
originally with the intention of becoming a dramatist. She has written
poetry, fiction and plays, as well as a non-fiction work about the jazz
singer Bessie Smith. Though she has continued to live in England, latterly
in Manchester with her partner, the poet Carol Ann Duffy, she has said that
she regards much of her writing as Scottish, not necessarily in subject but
in language and speech rhythms. Among other awards she has received the
Saltire First Book Award, the Somerset Maugham Award and the Guardian
Fiction Prize.