The School of History, Classics and Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh is delighted to welcome Jackie Kay, Scots Makar, poet and novelist as part of Black History Month. She will be in conversation with Dr Talat Ahmed, Director of Equality and Diversity within the School and Co-Director of Centre for South Asian Studies.

The event is from 7pm-8.30pm with a wine and nibbles welcome, 6-7pm.

Jackie Kay was born and brought up in Scotland. THE ADOPTION PAPERS (Bloodaxe) won the Forward Prize, a Saltire prize and a Scottish Arts Council Prize. FIERE was shortlisted for the COSTA award and her novel TRUMPET won the Guardian Fiction Award and was shortlisted for the IMPAC award. RED DUST ROAD (Picador) won the Scottish Book of the Year Award, and the LONDON BOOK AWARD, and was shortlisted for the JR ACKERLEY prize. Her third collection of short stories, REALITY, REALITY, was praised by The Guardian as ‘rank[ing] among the best of the genre'. She was awarded an MBE in 2006, and made a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2002. Her book of stories WISH I WAS HERE won the Decibel British Book Award.

Jackie Kay also writes for children and her book RED CHERRY RED (Bloomsbury) won the CLYPE award. She has written extensively for stage and television. Her plays, MANCHESTER LINES (produced by Manchester Library Theatre) and THE NEW MAW BROON MONOLOGUES (produced by Glasgay), were a great success. Her most recent collection, BANTAM, was published in 2017 to critical acclaim. She is Chancellor of the University of Salford and Professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University.

Jackie Kay was named Scots Makar—the National Poet for Scotland—in March 2016.