Welcome to RASP books

RASP is an art commissioning organisation specialising in dyslexic artistʼs books. We have been publishing books by dyslexic artists since 2005, as part of a wider campaign to aid understanding and knowledge about dyslexia.

Forgotten Letters: An Anthology of Literature by Dyslexic Writers

Editor: Nim Folb

Book Launch, 2 November 2011 Theatro Technis, 26 Crowndale Road, London NW1 1TT

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

Nim Folb is a PhD student at the Educational Studies Department Goldsmiths, University of London.

What is a dyslexic writer?

There are far too few books that are written for dyslexics. The ones available tend to focus on recovering from the problem. They offer guidance or reassurance that dyslexia, can be solved, or lessened. They point out the advantages, disadvantages, or what it looks like. All too common, is the perception that dyslexics would be better off in a world without books, without language, without reading.

In November 2011, to coincide with Dyslexia Awareness Week, RASP will be releasing Forgotten Letters: An Anthology of Literature by Dyslexic Writers. The book is a compilation of work by contemporary dyslexic writers, both renowned and emerging, including but not limited to, Billy Childish (co-founder of the Stuckism Art Movement); Andrew Solomon (winner of the 2001 National Book Award and finalist for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize); Thomas West (author of Thinking Like Einstein and In the Mind’s Eye); Sally Gardner, (winner of the 2005 Nestlé Children's Book Prize Gold Award and, shortlisted for the British Children's Book of the Year in 2006); Philip Schultz (winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry); and Benjamin Zephaniah (included in The Times list of Britain's top 50 post-war writers in 2008).

Some contributors have chosen to explore the concept of dyslexia through orthographic aberrations, while others have addressed their techniques for writing or discussed what writing means to them. Together they bring attention to the structure of stories, images in words, and the authors’ love of language.

As such, this anthology is about more than the forgetting of letters. It is a testimony to the value of writing to dyslexics. It brings to the fore notions of authorship, and authority. It asks: who decides what dyslexia is? And who authorises if whether dyslexics can write, or not? The book is considered to be of interest, not just to dyslexics, but also those interested in the relationship between identity and authorship as authority. It provides a compelling read to all concerned with the limitations of representation and gives a voice to those who have been marginalised by literary traditions.