A FORMER writer in residence at the Brontë Parsonage Museum has become the National Poet of Scotland.

Internationally renowned poet and novelist, Jackie Kay, was recently announced as the country’s third ‘Makar’.

The role, established in 2014 by the Scottish Parliament, will see Ms Kay create new work and promote poetry throughout the country, while encouraging young people to engage with the art form.

Ms Kay, born in Edinburgh and brought up in East Dunbartonshire, received an MBE in 2006. She is now the chancellor of Salford University.

Ms Kay was the Haworth museum’s writer-in-residence in 2013 and 2014, with a brief to engage with visitors and students.

She wrote new pieces exploring the lives and works of the Brontë sisters, and her writing was showcased at public events, including poetry workshops, readings and the museum’s annual Brontë Festival of Women’s Writing.

At the time of her appointment, she said she had grown up with the Brontës, through Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Villette and Emily’s poetry, and had returned to them again and again all her reading life.

Ms Kay said she was delighted and honoured to be chosen as Scotland’s latest makar, and hopes she can do her country proud.

She added: "Poetry has an extraordinary role to make a difference in the world.

“In troubled times, poetry can lend a hand and be a player, and I look forward to looking at all the different ways we can use poetry to develop Scotland's conversation, not just with itself but with the rest of the world."

Jackie came to prominence in 1992 as winner of The Scottish First Book Award for her volume of poetry The Adoption Papers.

Her third volume of poetry – Trumpet – won the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1998, and her memoir, Red Dust Road, about her search for her natural parents in Scotland and Nigeria, drew wide critical acclaim for the warmth of her storytelling and the beauty of her poetry.