On the final episode of Season One of The Invisible Gift, Andrew meets famed writer, and Pulitzer prize winning poet, Philip Schultz. In this episode, we’re taken to the heart of the question: How did a boy who couldn’t read or write win a Pulitzer prize?

Andrew and Philip share an incredible conversation where Philip takes us back to his challenging and character forming childhood. Philip explains the genesis behind his persona writing, how it can unlock one’s writing potential, and how this process led to his globally successful school: The Writer’s Studio. Philip also explains how he learned about his dyslexia, the story behind his powerful memoir My Dyslexia, we hear a performance of Philip’s poem ‘Googling Ourselves’. 

Top Quotes

“I lived in a world where dyslexia explained a lot. The life of the imagination was a more feasible, safer life than the one on the outside.” - Philip Schultz

“The hardest thing in teaching is encouraging people to translate what they really feel about the subjects they’re writing about” - Philip Schultz

“I couldn’t learn how to read or write. So I became a writer.” - Philip Schultz

“The struggle is to overcome the image of the self as a failure.” - Philip Schultz

About The Guest

Philip Schultz was born into a working class family in Rochester, New York. He struggled in school, failing to learn to read until he was eleven years of age. Despite this, Philip would go on to study in university, and released his first collection of poetry Like Wings in 1978. Philip Schultz has been teaching creative writing for almost five decades. After spending four years as the director of New York University’s graduate creative writing program, he founded his own school, The Writers Studio, in 1987.

Schultz’s work has been published in The New Yorker, Partisan Review, The New Republic, The Paris Review, Slate, and other magazines. He won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for his collection poetry Failure. This, before the Nobel Prize for Literature, is the highest honour a poet can receive globally. He wouldn’t learn he was dyslexic until his son was diagnosed with the condition, at the age of 57. In 2011, he published his memoir My Dyslexia. 

Resources

https://www.writerstudio.com/courses/online/

https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/philip-schultz

https://www.kitall.co.uk/

https://www.onefineplay.com/

About The Host

The Invisible Gift is hosted by entrepreneur and dyslexic, Andrew Kitley. With twenty years experience, Andrew Kitley has worked his way up the metaphorical and literal ladder to become Managing Director of Kitall: an engineering firm.

Under Andrew's guidance, Kitall is now one of the most sought after names to complete complex engineering projects in the UK. In each episode of The Invisible Gift, Andrew seeks the advice & inspiration of a fellow trailblazer who has defied the odds to achieve the extraordinary - turning the challenge of dyslexia into a gift.