Rebecca Makkai is a New York Times bestselling author whose books have been translated into more than 20 languages. She is a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award finalist.
She teaches graduate fiction writing at Northwestern University, among other places, and is artistic director of StoryStudio Chicago.
A review of her accomplishments would leave you wondering: What can this woman not do?The answer? Laundry.Putting away clean laundry, according to Makkai, is an “insurmountable task.” So is making doctors’ appointments, keeping track of her keys, tolerating conversational lags, and opening a package neatly with scissors.
These are the parts of ADHD that Makkai, who was diagnosed just three years ago, finds frustrating. But for Makkai, these annoyances are just a small part of the big neurodivergent picture.Makkai says ADHD affords her the hyperfocus, bold instinct, and associative thinking that’s allowed her to craft novels like I Have Some Questions for You and The Great Believers, lauded as “spellbinding, “enthralling” and “emotionally riveting” by media outlets including The New York Times Book Review.“My mind goes in 17 different directions at once, and I’m constantly reaching for new ideas.