Jackie Kay’s archive now available to the public
The literary archive of Scotland’s former Makar, award-winning writer Jackie Kay, is now available for research and public viewing at the National Library of Scotland.
Acquired by the Library in 2024, the 63-box collection offers unparalleled insight into the life and work of one of Scotland’s former Makars. It includes early schoolbooks, manuscripts of celebrated works like ‘The Adoption Papers’ and ‘Trumpet’, correspondence, and notebooks filled with the seeds of poems and stories.
The archive also captures moments of Kay’s everyday life, such as family photos from trips to the Isle of Mull, or the story of finding her poem laminated on the wall of a chip shop – a moment her father, John Kay, celebrated by dubbing her the “Poet Laminate”.
Director of Collections, Access and Research Alison Stevenson said: “We’re delighted to open Jackie Kay’s archive to the world. This is more than a collection of papers; it is a narrative of a life lived with courage, humour, and profound artistic integrity.”
The archive includes records of hateful posters targeting a young Kay at the University of Stirling, a memory of the hostility she faced as a Black woman. It also charts her search for community in London, working with Sheba Feminist Press and co-founding the Black Lesbian Group. Tape recordings of Kay’s radio appearances, poetry readings, and rehearsals for a production of her play, ‘Twice Over’, provide an invaluable insight into Kay’s life at this time.
One series of letters, on personalised stationery, are from the seminal Black feminist poet and scholar Audre Lorde. Lorde's letters include affectionate descriptions of Kay as “a wee lass from Glasgow with a mouth like a queen plum” and her characteristic sign-off: “be good, you hear?”
The completion of the cataloguing process means that for the first time, members of the public can access material that charts Kay’s journey from her childhood in Bishopbriggs to her tenure as Makar.
Jackie Kay’s archive is available to view in the National Library of Scotland’s reading rooms in Edinburgh. A full listing of the collection can be found in the Library’s online catalogue > https://manuscripts.nls.uk/repositories/2/resources/22736
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