Imprint 09 offers the remarkable opportunity to hear two of
the finest poets in the UK perform on a double bill.
Jackie Kay MBE is an award-winning writer of fiction, poetry
and plays, whose subtle investigation into the complexities of identity have been informed by her own life. Born in Edinburgh to a Scottish mother and Nigerian father, she was adopted as a baby by a white couple. Her awareness of her different heritages inspired her first book of poetry, The Adoption
Papers, which won the Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year.
Jackie is currently Professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University.
Poet and playwright Liz Lochhead studied at Glasgow School
of Art and taught art at schools in Glasgow and Bristol. She was Writer-in-Residence at Edinburgh University (1986-7) and Writer in Residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1988.
Her first collection of poems, Memo for Spring, was published in 1972 and won a Scottish Arts Council Book Award. Liz became a full-time writer, performance poet and broadcaster in 1978 and has generated a substantial body of work.
Liz lives in Glasgow and was appointed Poet Laureate for the city in 2005. She has received many academic honours including honorary degrees from the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow in recognition of her significant contribution to Scottish literature.
