Sally Gardner
How would I describe myself? Once I called myself a theatre designer, then I became a costume designer. I changed again and became an illustrator for children's books.
And all along I never told anyone what I really wanted to do. Because the idea of someone like me who is so profoundly dyslexic being a writer seemed utterly ridiculous. But life has a habit or shaking things up when you least expect it. And I found myself a single parent of three children with the knowledge that I wasn't earning enough to keep us all alive.
My agent at the time, who was known as the Lauren Bacall of children’s agents, found me a lady who could decipher dyslexic manuscripts. I was not convinced. I put all my notebooks for the story I had been working on into a carrier bag, cut a hole in the corner and thought if they fell out before I arrived at my destination, I was not meant to be doing this. My first book, The Strongest Girl in the World, was published. My editor said when she read it, “Well, I didn't know you could write.”
When I wrote I, Coriander the same editor said, “I knew you could write, but I didn't know you could write.” I'm a dealer in words. I am a storyteller who can turn a tail on the sixpence. I love what I do, and I refuse to be embarrassed anymore. I can't ******* spell. I wear my dyslexia with pride. I am a writer of many, many books. My new novel, out on Nov. 10, is called The Weather Women.
Dyslexic Dictionary
Dyslexic Dictionary is a provocation — an invitation to explore and redefine.
Nine dyslexic artists have been commissioned to produce a creative response to a book, word, poem, quote, article or even a single letter that highlights how their minds experience language.
The exhibition illuminates the dyslexic experience of language in powerfully graphical terms. Dyslexia pushes artists to interpret the world differently. The end result celebrates a vibrant diversity of dyslexic talent across mediums and backgrounds in an effort to lead a paradigm shift in the way society understands learning differences.
We chose the term “dictionary” as a placeholder for a collection of reimaginations and reinterpretations of the dyslexic experience that will explode the very notion of a dictionary.
The mission is to present dyslexia as a visionary, positive force — a hyper-ability that does not create but instead solves problems.
More than just an exhibition, Dyslexic Dictionary is a forum to showcase dyslexic ingenuity, host public conversation and gather community.
to fail to conform to or comply with
Disobedience is deliberately not doing what someone in authority tells you to do — or what a rule or law says that you should do.
Disobedience is an engine for change. It is the breaking of rules that needed to be questioned.
To disobey is to open closed doors, to find a way out of a room of narrow minds.
Dis — keep it in your pocket. Put it in front of obey. Use it wisely. Dis has great power.
Disobedience is a part of being dyslexic. A refusal to be classified, to adhere to rules without answers. A defiance against mediocrity.
To disobey is to believe in the power of imagination to alter situations. To leave those behind who tell you things must be done same as they were always done.
Disobedience runs in our DNA. We are not train-track thinkers. There are no straight lines for us to follow. We will be disobedient forever and, in that, we will go further to discover the future.
