The Adoption Papers. Newcastle upon Tyne: Bloodaxe, 1991.

JACKIE KAY (b.1961)
The Adoption Papers. Newcastle upon Tyne: Bloodaxe, 1991.
'When you're adopted, you are made of a mixture of blood, myth and porridge. You invent yourself ...': first edition, richly annotated with 2,180 words on 54 pages, with two additional photographs. Kay's first collection, The Adoption Papers tells the autobiographical story of a Black girl's adoption by a white Scottish family through the viewpoints of three women: the child, her adoptive mother, and her biological mother. It was subsequently adapted as a play for radio, and won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the Saltire Society Scottish First Book Award and a Scottish Arts Council Book Award in 1992. Kay's annotations include extensive reflections on the opening pages recalling the origins of the collection, and detailed reactions throughout to the poems, especially linking them to her personal experiences and literary inspirations (including Sylvia Plath). The last annotation is ironic: 'After six months, this first edition sold out. Andrew MacAllister, Bloodaxe's publicist at the time, rang me to say, "we're getting a lot of attention for this book. Strange. I'll need to go back and read it again"'. The two accompanying photographs are a formal portrait and a shot of Kay and others after winning the Scottish Book Award for the collection.

Octavo. Original pictorial card wrappers.

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