The literary archive of award-winning writer Jackie Kay has been acquired by the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh.
The archive comprises 34 boxes of material that offer an insight into the life and writing of Kay, who was the Makar (National Poet for Scotland) from 2016 to 2021.
The material includes personal letters, manuscripts of poems, novels, short stories, plays, diaries and press articles.
Schoolbooks and university writing, early essays, family papers, notebooks, photographs, audio cassettes, prizes, awards and honours are also included.
READ MORE: Glasgow is a city of contradictions, says poet Jackie Kay
National librarian Amina Shah welcomed Kay to the facility on Thursday morning, acknowledging the poet and novelist as one of Scotland’s most acclaimed cultural figures.
Kay said: “I’d never have thought, having kept all my old notebooks, jotters and letters for years, moved them from house to house to live in various attics or cellars, that they would finally end up in the best of all homes – the National Library of Scotland.
“And in the very best of company too – with Alasdair Gray, Muriel Spark, Nan Shepherd and Burns amongst many beloved others.
“My son said to me, ‘Mum you’re going to have nothing to do when you’re dead.’ It’s a comfort and an honour to know that years after I’m gone people will still be able to have a good old rummage amongst my things.”
Ms Shah said: “The National Library has the literary archives of some of Scotland’s most renowned authors, and now we’ve added another treasure to sit alongside them.
“This collection offers abundant insight into Kay’s work and life, which are often inseparable.
“As a former Makar, prize-winning author and major literary figure, Kay’s writing is widely known and in demand, and her archive is of significant research value to academics, students, biographers, historians and all fans of Kay’s work.
“We are most grateful to Jackie Kay for choosing us as the place for her archive. By doing so, she has ensured public access to her archive, which may inspire generations of writers and artists to come.”
Jackie Kay is the author of — among other books — ‘The Adoption Papers’, which won the Forward Prize, ‘Red Dust Road’, winner of the Scottish Book of the Year Award, ‘Trumpet’, and the Costa-shortlisted ‘Fiere’.
She is a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Salford.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel