What kind of biscuits do you lay out for a national icon? I settled on gingers and spent too long arranging them on one of my wife’s favourite plates. We record at my home (ten points if you can hear the bin lorry during the chat!) and Jackie was kind enough to come over and share the stories behind this new collection of poems, and its title, ‘May Day’, a chronicle of activism in the UK over six decades.
It’s a feisty conversation, with peaks of revelry as Jackie recalls her encounter with Maya Angelou (doing an impeccable impression of her) and deeper, quieter and more sombre moments for both Jackie and I, as we reflect on loss, feelings about family and the notion of home.
It was quite the moment for me, to hear Jackie recite lines of two different poems in this episode, gifting Somewhere for Us listeners with a personal glimpse into the collection through her own voice. Jackie Kay has survived years of appalling experiences she reveals, which I hear in her bite and her fight for a better, kinder world.
May Day is out now, published by Picador and available in all good independent book shops.
About Jackie Kay
Jackie Kay was born in Edinburgh. A poet, novelist and writer of short stories, she has enjoyed great acclaim for her work for both adults and children. Her novel, Trumpet, won the Guardian Fiction Prize. She has published three collections of stories with Picador, Why Don’t You Stop Talking, Wish I Was Here, and Reality, Reality; two poetry collections, Fiere and Bantam; and a memoir, Red Dust Road. From 2016 to 2021 she was the third modern Makar, the National Poet for Scotland. She lives in Manchester and is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Salford.
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