She had 4 brothers, and when she was six, they all moved to Stafford, England where her father had a job that managed the Stafford Rangers Football Club. There, she attended a Roman Catholic primary and middle schools, then attended Stafford Girls' High.

While in high school she was influenced by two of her English teachers that encouraged her passion for reading and writing ("Scottish Poetry Library").

1) Fleshweathercock and Other Poems (1974)

2) Beauty and the Beast (1977)

3) Fifth Last Song (1982)

A few other sets of poetry/poems written throughout her adult life are Standing Female Nude (1985), Selling Manhatten (1987), The Other Country (1990), and many more.

Later on, she became a lecturer in poetry at the Manchester Metropolitan University in 1996. She married writer Jackie Kay, and had a daughter named Ella. Soon after, she became creative director at the Manchester Metropolitan University writing school ("Scottish Poetry Library").

• Scottish Arts Council Award

• Whitbread Book Award for poetry

• T.S Eliot Prize

• Somerset Maugham Award

• Dame Commander of the British Empire

("Brittanica")

• Language and the representation of reality

• Construction of self

• Gender issues

• Contemporary culture

• Different forms of alienation

• Oppression and social inequality

• Mischevious/Playful tone and styles

("British Poetry Council")