Interview: Jackie KayPosted in Africa, Articles, Autobiography, Media Archive, United Kingdom on 2013-03-31 02:43Z by Steven |
The Journal
Newcastle upon Tyne
2013-03-30
Jackie Kay is about to be read in places most writers never reach. David Whetstone spoke to her.
YOU can imagine there are lots of things a writer dreams of – literary prizes, lucrative deals, maybe a film adaptation.
But a different accolade has come the way of Jackie Kay, professor of creative writing at Newcastle University.
Her acclaimed memoir, Red Dust Road, has been chosen as one of 20 books on the list for World Book Night (April 23).
On that night 20,000 volunteers will each distribute 20 copies of the chosen books in communities where reading is not commonplace.
“Obviously the books can be by writers living or dead so there were a lot to choose from,” says Jackie…
…Jackie was born in Edinburgh in 1961 to a Scottish mother and a Nigerian father. She was adopted as a baby by a Scottish couple and grew up in Glasgow.
The book, sparked by Jackie’s decision to track down her birth parents, begins as she waits in a hotel in Nigeria to meet the father she has never seen.
“It’s a strange thing, looking at one black man after another wondering if he is your father,” she writes…
Read the entire interview here.