Many books are written about dyslexia, often by non-dyslexic experts.

These point out how dyslexia looks.

All too common is the perception that dyslexics would be better off in a world without books, without reading.

they say

in this other world

where there is no writing

no books,

dyslexics would be equal.

This ʻotherʼ world does not exist.

This anthology of dyslexic writers is a move towards understanding, and sharing knowledge, of how dyslexics experience language.

Not as a deviation from 'the norm'

(whatever that is)

or as some kind of linguistic trace that represents an obscurity, or strangeness, of mind.

but as that

between the ʻpageʼ and the 'life lived'.

As such, this anthology is about more than the forgetting of letters.

It is about the value of writing to dyslexics.

It brings to the fore notions of authorship, and authority.

It asks:

who gets to be an author?

Who or whom authorises it?

Where does this authority come from?

This is not a book about literacy.

It is concerned by the telling of stories

and that thing we call ʻvoiceʼ.

Whose voices are acceptable, and in what context?

Dyslexia as neither uniform, or simple.

With many facets, and wonderful details.

Not all of which can be brought to the level of language.

If you allow yourself, for just a short while to distance yourself with those conventions that assist us in reading, to see the images

What one dyslexic poet described as ʻthe pictures flickerʼ

You might see that there is not one key, answer or solution to dyslexia.

As it is not a curse, or disorder.

Dyslexia is not a destiny, or an enigma.

It does not prevent us from writing, or speaking.

It is more a way of thinking, and knowing:

a difference

not just within writing

but also between writers.

Copies of Forgotten Letters: An Anthology of Literature by Dyslexic Writers will be available to buy at the launch November 2nd 2011 at

Theatro Technis, London.

Thereafter they can be purchased online through www.r-a-s-p.co.uk.

Nim Folb will be attending the launch event where you can discuss RASP further, or contact her at publishing@r-a-s-p.co.uk