Salford professor Jackie Kay CBE is set to release a new definitive legacy collection of her acclaimed poetry later this month.
The former Scots Makar will release Selected Poems 1991 – 2026 on Thursday 22 October.
The collection will include a selection of Jackie’s pieces from the last three decades of her trailblazing career, with poems included from her Forward Prize-winning debut The Adoption Papers (Bloodaxe, 1991) through to the 2024 hit May Day (Picador).
It will trace profound journeys of adoption, sexuality, racial justice and belonging over the course of Jackie’s life. From her encounters with her Scottish and Nigerian birth parents, to a piercing farewell to her adoptive, activist parents that brought her up in Glasgow.
Selected Poems will have its Manchester launch at Manchester Literature Festival at HOME Manchester on Sunday 25 October in an event titled ‘An Evening with Jackie Kay’. A total of 20 free tickets have been provided for the event for our students by the publishers Picador and the University, with the rest on sale now.
The award-winning poet is currently embarking on an autumn tour to promote the book, which included the BBC Contains Strong Language Festival at our MediaCity campus last month and has got further forthcoming appearances in Stirling, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Berwick-upon-Tweed and London over the coming weeks.
The long-term Writer in Residence at Salford co-led the landmark Salford Literacy Symposium at our MediaCity campus with over 100 educators and academics in June 2025 and was also featured as a subject in the BBC’s In My Own Words series in September 2024.
Jackie served as Chancellor of the University of Salford from 2014 to 2021 before returning in 2023 as our Professor of Creative Writing. She received a CBE in 2020 for services to literature.
Her most recent works include the 2025 Scottish lullaby story Coorie Doon, the poetry collections May Day, Bantam, Fiere and the memoir Red Dust Road. Her debut novel, Trumpet, won the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1998