What is Dyslexia? by Mystery Novel Author Stephen J. Cannell - YouTube

Stephen J. Cannell, the Mystery Novel Writer, has lived with dyslexia his entire life. In this inspiring video series, he explains dyslexia, misconceptions, challenges and ways to help children with dyslexia.

Check out more videos and fun stuff at Cannell.com

Billy Childish - Prolific UK Writer and Artist - Dyslexic

A cult figure in America, Europe and Japan, Billy Childish is by far the most prolific painter, poet, and song-writer of his generation.

He founded the Stuckism Art Movement.

In a twenty year period he has published over 40 collections of his poetry, recorded over 100 full-length independent LP’s and produced over 2000 paintings.

Born in 1959 in Chatham, Kent. Billy Childish left Secondary education at 16 an undiagnosed dyslexic.

Refused an interview at the local art school he entered the Naval Dockyard at Chatham as an apprentice stonemason.

During the following six months (the artist’s only prolonged period of employment), he produced some six hundred drawings in ‘the tea huts of hell.

On the basis of this work he was accepted into St Martin’s School of Art to study painting.

However, his acceptance was short-lived and before completing the course he was expelled for his outspokenness and unorthodox working methods.

With no qualifications and no job prospects Childish then spent some 12 years ‘painting on the dole’, developing his own highly personal writing style and producing his art independently.

My Dyslexia by Philip Schultz: Interview - YouTube

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and founder/director of the Writers Studio
Philip Schultz read from his new book, My Dyslexia, at the Churchill School in NYC.
Drs. Sally and Bennett Shaywitz also sat down with him to talk about his dyslexia.

Philip Schultz: The Writers Studio Reading Series - YouTube

Philip Schultz is an American poet, and the founder/director of The Writer's Studio, a private school for fiction and poetry based in New York City.

He is the author of several books of poetry, including The God of Loneliness (2010), a major collection of the poet's works; Failure (2007) co-winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry; Living in the Past (2004); and The Holy Worm of Praise (2002), all published by Harcourt.

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He is also the author of Deep Within the Ravine (Viking 1984), which was the Lamont Poetry Selection of the Academy of American Poets; Like Wings (Viking 1978, winner of an American Academy & Institute of Arts and Letters Award as well as a National Book Award nomination); and the poetry chapbook, My Guardian Angel Stein (1986).

His work has been published in The New Yorker, Partisan Review, The New Republic, The Paris Review, Slate, among other magazines, and he is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship in Poetry to Israel and a 2005 Guggenheim Fellowship in Poetry.

He has also received, among others, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry (1981), a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry (1985), as well as the Levinson Prize from Poetry magazine.

His memoir, My Dyslexia, was released by W. W. Norton & Company in September 2011. Philip Schultz lives in East Hampton, NY with his wife, sculptor Monica Banks and their two sons, Elias and August.

Philip Schultz speaking to Writer's Voice

Howard Engel: The Writer who forgot how to Read

Howard Engel is an accomplished Canadian novelist. One day, Engel suffered a stroke that left him with alexia sine (Latin for without) agraphia. Also known as 'acquired Dyslexia' and in this case it was 'acquired' during a stroke.

Alexia is a condition which prevents a person from being able to read written words, without a major effort, while retaining their ability to write. In alexia or 'acquired dyslexia' the brain can no longer process text and the meaning of text, as a fixed reference.

Engel was puzzled by the fact that he could still write, but shortly after writing a piece of text, he was unable to read it. So Engel devised a way to use this remaining ability to regain his literacy.

Cartoonist and animator Levni Yilmaz produced this video for National Public Radio explaining how Engel was able to do it.

Henry Winkler becomes best-selling children's author

Henry Winkler: The series of 17 books follows a young dyslexic child called Hank Zipzer and is based on Winkler's own experience with the condition.

The actor, 64, has already sold 2.5 million copies of his books in the US and is now being published in Britain.

The series of 17 books follows a young dyslexic child called Hank Zipzer and is based on Winkler's own experience with the condition.

He said: "As a seven year-old I knew I wanted to be an actor. But if you want to know what means the most to me, it's the books."

Winkler is about to start working on a new set of books with his co-author Lin Oliver, called Ghost Buddy which centre around a 13 year-old boy with an imaginary best friend.

The actor has claimed that he did not read his first novel until he was in his 30s.

He said: "I was in the bottom 3 per cent at school. I was told I would never achieve. My parents had an affectionate term for me: 'dummerkind' [dumb kid]. I didn't' do well at school."

Winkler did not discover that he was dyslexic until his son Jed was diagnosed.

"I realised - that's me too," he said. "The first novel I read was when I was in my 30s. It was a triumph - all of those words in those covers."

He admitted that he always had difficulty reading the Happy Days scripts and said that he would memorise them on his own because he found it impossible to read in groups.

Winkler is currently touring 60 schools across the UK as part of the government's My Way campaign which is intended to encourage school pupils that there is no such thing as being stupid, just different approaches to learning.