Can dyslexics become great writers? Totally.

I discovered the other day that Agatha Christie was dyslexic. She was also one of the best writers and literary stylists around in early twentieth century Britain.

Jules Verne, public domain from Wikimedia.

Other dyslexic authors include Stephen Cannell, Jean Betancourt, Jules Verne and Gustave Flaubert, among others. Here’s a list of 25 famous dyslexic authors.

That’s no paradox. ‘Dyslexic’ doesn’t mean ‘stupid’.  Those who have it innately process certain things in a different way from how others do it, which often appears as problems with western reading, writing and spelling. The underlying issue can also manifest as problems with number order (dyscalculia), motor co-ordination (dyspraxia),  or disentangling phonemes when someone speaks (dysaudia). Really these are aspects of the same thing, but western rationalism conditions us to divide concepts into little boxes that miss the connections.

Some dyslexics can read just fine, but have difficulty typing letters…