Jackie Kay has been named as Scotland’s new makar, or national poet. She succeeds Liz Lochhead, whose tenure as national poet came to an end in January. The announcement  was made at the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh on Tuesday. Kay said: "I'm absolutely delighted and honoured to have been chosen as Scotland's new makar and to follow in the footsteps of such really inspiring and wonderful poets as Edwin Morgan and Liz Lochhead.

"I was born in Edinburgh, adopted, and my mum said to me the other day 'who would have thought that that wee baby they brought home in a basket would end up being the makar'."

She added: "Poetry has an extraordinary role to make a difference in the world. In these times we live in, 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. It seems to me to also be a very, very exciting time to be in Scotland at the moment."

The award-winning author was selected from a shortlist prepared by a panel of literary experts, convened by Dr Robyn Marsack, director of the Scottish Poetry Library. The final selection was made by Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, and former first ministers Alex Salmond, Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale and Henry McLeish.

The first minister made the announcement at the Scottish Poetry Library where Kay read one of her poems, ‘Between the Dee and the Don’. Sturgeon said: "Poetry is part of Scotland's culture and history, it celebrates our language and can evoke strong emotions and memories in all of us. The role of the makar is to celebrate our poetic past, promote the poetry of today and produce new pieces of work that relate to significant events in our nation.

"Jackie Kay's poems sometimes deal with challenging subjects, taken from her own life experiences, and she has a particular Scottish brand of gallus humour. She is hugely respected, is known for her poignant and honest words, and is a role model for many, and I am delighted to name her as the new national poet for Scotland."

Kay said she hoped to “open up the conversations, the blethers, the arguments and celebrations that Scotland has with itself and with the rest of the world”. She won the Guardian fiction prize in 1998 for her first novel, Trumpet, and was awarded an MBE for services to literature in 2006. Her first collection of poetry, The Adoption Papers, was published in 1991 and was named Scottish First Book of the Year. She is currently chancellor of Salford University.

Born in Edinburgh in 1961, Kay was adopted and brought up in Glasgow, she later discussed the rarity at that time of being a mixed-race child brought up by white parents. In her memoir, Red Dust Road, she describes the search for her birth parents – a young nurse from the Highlands and a Nigerian student at Aberdeen University in the early 1960s.

Background: Jackie Kay's anti-racism poem at football match