May Day: the new collection from one of Britain's best-loved poets

(Paperback)

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May Day is the long-awaited new poetry collection from one of our best-loved poets and former Makar of Scotland, Jackie Kay. These poems cast an eye over several decades of political activism, from the international solidarity of the Glasgow of Kay's childhood, accompanying her parents' Socialist campaigns, through the feminist, LGBT+ and anti-racist movements of the 80s and 90s, up to the present day when a global pandemic intersects with the urgency of Black Lives Matter. Kay brings to life a cast of influential figures, delving beneath the surfaces of received narratives: the Jamaican model Fanny Eaton, muse of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in England; Paul Robeson, Angela Davis and the poet Audre Lorde; and a 'what-if' poem concerning Rabbie Burns and a road-not-taken towards the West Indian slave trade. Woven through the collection is a suite of lyric poems concerning the recent losses of Kay's parents: poems of grief and profound change that are infused with the light of love and celebration.

Reviews

Jackie Kay is a distinctively Scottish voice in British poetry. In her new collection, May Day, accessible and gratifying, the personal and the political are seamlessly interwoven. -- Linton Kwesi Johnson, dub poet, activist and author of Mi Revalueshanary Fren and Time Come
Jackie Kay is the peoples poet because she puts language where it starts - in our mouths, and holds it where it belongs - in our hearts -- Jeanette Winterson, author of Frankissstein and Oranges Are not the Only Fruit
What a timely reminder, as our right to peaceful protest is under threat, of the sense of community that comes from raising our voices together against war, injustice and oppression, of the power of protest, and of the joy of resistance. And threading these poems together, as always in Jackie's work, is love. Love of family, of friends and lovers, of art & music, of nature, of words, love for the world. This book made me want to fight harder, shout louder, stand taller and love better. -- Julie Hesmondhalgh, actress and star of Coronation Street, Happy Valley and Broadchurch
May Day is a page-turner. This collection presents her signature mixture of close-up scrutiny and wide coverage of past and present, short and long, personal and political, colloquial and literary, humorous and outrageous . . . May Day is a banquet, with interesting company on your left and right, especially the left. Dozens of dog-eared pages await my next return most likely tomorrow. -- Peggy Seeger
Jackies poetry exudes warmth and generosity, while simultaneously inclined towards poetry as an ethical undertaking, something that impels the spirit while protective of the vulnerable. Jackies direct style has always tugged at the heart and soul, and the ethical mind of her readers . . . the most forgiving of analytical songsters currently at work. -- Fred D'Aguiar, poet and author of Letters to America and For the Unnamed

Author Bio

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 her memoir, Red Dust Road. From 2016 to 2021 she was the third modern Makar, National Poet for Scotland. She lives in Manchester and is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Salford.