Jacqueline Margaret Kay is a renowned Scottish poet, playwright, and novelist. Born on 9 November 1961, she is celebrated for her works such as Other Lovers (1993), Trumpet (1998), and Red Dust Road (2011). Over her illustrious career, Kay has received numerous accolades, including the prestigious Somerset Maugham Award in 1994, the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1998, and the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Book of the Year Award in 2011.

From 2016 to 2021, Jackie Kay held the esteemed position of the Makar, the poet laureate of Scotland. She also served as the Chancellor of the University of Salford from 2015 to 2022. Born in Glasgow to a Scottish mother and Nigerian father, she was adopted by a white couple, Helen and John Kay, and brought up in Bishopbriggs, a suburb of Glasgow. She has an older adopted brother, Maxwell, and siblings by her adoptive parents. Her adoptive father was actively involved with the Communist Party, while her mother served as the secretary for the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).

Initially aspiring to be an actress, Kay shifted her focus to writing under the encouragement of Alasdair Gray. She pursued English studies at the University of Stirling, and her debut poetry book, the partially autobiographical The Adoption Papers, marked the beginning of her literary journey.