{"id":46122,"date":"2016-03-20T16:54:32","date_gmt":"2016-03-20T16:54:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=46122"},"modified":"2017-02-19T21:35:31","modified_gmt":"2017-02-19T21:35:31","slug":"jackie-kay-scotlands-poet-of-the-people%ef%bb%bf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=46122","title":{"rendered":"Jackie Kay: Scotland\u2019s poet of the people\ufeff"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jackie Kay: Scotland\u2019s poet of the people<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The Guardian<\/a>
\n2016-03-20<\/p>\n

Kevin McKenna<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
\nJackie Kay<\/a> at the Scottish Poetry Library<\/a> in Edinburgh<\/a> last week.
\nPhotograph: Andrew Milligan\/PA<\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

To say there was a national outpouring of joy at the appointment of Jackie Kay<\/a> as Scotland\u2019s<\/a> makar<\/a> last week might be overdoing it, but not by much. In previous decades, perhaps, not many beyond bearded and ponytailed literary circles might even have known the identity of a new makar or even the purpose of the post. The profile and efforts of the two previous incumbents, Edwin Morgan<\/a> and Liz Lochhead<\/a>, though, have helped to raise awareness of the position so that it has begun to insinuate itself into our national life.<\/p>\n

Following the appointment of Kay as Scotland\u2019s national poet<\/a> last Tuesday, a press colleague who had interviewed her was simply thrilled. \u201cShe\u2019s just wonderful; she\u2019ll make people read poetry and write poetry who have never done so before.\u201d The words were spoken in a tone that suggested he had touched the great woman\u2019s hem…<\/p>\n

…Jackie Kay was born in Edinburgh<\/a> in 1961 to a Scottish mother and Nigerian father whereupon she was given up for adoption. John and Helen had adopted Kay\u2019s brother, Maxwell, two years earlier. Many years later, she located her biological father and made plans to meet him while harbouring some anxiety as to how this might be received by her adoptive parents who had given her and her brother so much. She has referred to this as a \u201ckind of adultery\u201d…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jackie Kay: Scotland\u2019s poet of the people The Guardian 2016-03-20 Kevin McKenna Jackie Kay at the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh last week. Photograph: Andrew Milligan\/PA To say there was a national outpouring of joy at the appointment of Jackie Kay as Scotland\u2019s makar last week might be overdoing it, but not by much. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,24,8,10,25],"tags":[23264,23265,153,2103],"class_list":["post-46122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-arts","category-media-archive","category-uk","category-women","tag-jackie-kay","tag-kevin-mckenna","tag-scotland","tag-the-guardian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46122"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51627,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46122\/revisions\/51627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}