Nicola Sturgeon has praised the "outstanding contribution" of Scots makar Jackie Kay, as her tenure as Scotland's national poet comes to an end.
Scotland's third Makar – who succeeded Edwin Morgan and Liz Lochhead – described her time in the role as an "incredible journey".
She held the title for the past five years.
Ms Kay’s time as Makar saw her read Threshold at the opening of the Scottish Parliament in 2016, take up residency at Young Scot during the Year of Young People in 2018 and develop a digital project bringing poets and musicians to the public during lockdown.
READ MORE: Scots musician finds inspiration in 'home' after pandemic obliterates industry
Other highlights include a collaboration in 2020 called Fare Well which formed the centrepiece of Edinburgh’s Hogmanay celebrations and the lullaby Welcome Wee One which has featured in every Baby Box, more than 167,000, since the scheme launched in 2017.
Ms Kay also wrote The Long View partly in Gaelic, partly sung and partly in sign language, which was performed for the 20th anniversary of the Scottish Parliament.
Terms up! When I became #Makar, my dear dad, who was 91 at the time said - how long is your term in office? 5 years Dad, I said. Well your mother and I will just need to see oot your term in office, he said. And they very nearly did. Here’s to them and to all of you. Thank you! pic.twitter.com/mTUJgWhDZH
— Jackie Kay (@JackieKayPoet) March 14, 2021
Ms Kay said: "It has been an extraordinary journey these last five years and I've gained so much in terms of peoples' love and interest in poetry.
"I've found out so many things about my country.
"I wanted to take poetry to unexpected places and I feel that I have achieved that. Up until the lockdown I was on and off boats, on and off trains, in and out of cars and buses, travelling north, south, east and west, going to all sorts of different places I hadn't been to before.
READ MORE: Jackie Kay on Bessie Smith
She added: "It's been a glorious, joyous, interesting ride to have been to every major city and to have been to so much of the Highlands and Islands, rural parts of Scotland. It gave me a real sense of the country and its changing attitudes to politics, to race to diversity and to poetry."
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: "Jackie has made an outstanding contribution as Makar and helped widen the appeal of poetry to a broad and diverse audience both here in Scotland and internationally.
"The coronavirus pandemic has brought unique challenges, but Jackie's vitality, warmth and tremendous talent has helped to keep the role of Makar relevant."
Thank you @JackieKayPoet for being such an outstanding and inspirational Makar. You have taken the beauty of poetry to every corner of Scotland, and graced so many of our nation’s key moments with your words. You will be the hardest of acts to follow. https://t.co/ZBbfAcaJSY
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) March 14, 2021
Her replacement is set to be announced in the coming months.
Ms Sturgeon added: "Her Fare Well Hogmanay collaboration was a memorable event which shows the universal appeal of poetry and her lullaby Welcome Wee One has been the first introduction to poetry for thousands of children.
"The legacy of Jackie's tenure as Makar will be the enduring and positive impact she has had on so many, particularly the younger generation from her period in residence at Young Scot. She takes our best wishes for the future."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel