Jackie Kay was born on 9 November 1961 in Edinburgh, and grew up as a citizen of the United Kingdom. She attended Bishopbriggs Academy before going on to study at the University of Stirling, completing a formal education that preceded a writing life conducted in the English language. Her work spans poetry and prose fiction, and she has pursued both with sustained commitment over the course of her career.

As a poet and novelist, Kay has produced work that has drawn recognition from a range of literary bodies. Her novel Trumpet stands among her notable works in fiction. Across her output she has received the Somerset Maugham Award, the Lambda Literary Award, the Eric Gregory Award, the Cholmondeley Award, and the Saltire Awards — honours that span both her poetry and her fiction, and that have come from organisations in Scotland and beyond.

The Library of Congress catalogues Kay under the authorized label "Kay, Jackie, 1961-", a designation that situates her within the record of English-language writing. Born in Edinburgh in 1961, she has worked as a poet, novelist, and writer, and the accumulation of awards she has received — from the early Eric Gregory Award through to the Cholmondeley Award and the Saltire Awards — marks the range of a career conducted across more than one literary form.