Writers using strategic pseudonyms to get published

Re: Writers using strategic pseudonyms to get published

• GilliC member

  

  September 2015 edited September 2015

  At first, I thought it was a bit despicable, but I struggle to balance this with the concept of swapped gender identities in publishing. There are plenty of women who adopt male pen names to be taken seriously, and a few men who use female names to publish romance. I don't really care about that, so I don't feel like I should consider doing the same thing with ethnicity any differently than I do gender.

  
  

  I think the thing that sits uncomfortably with me is that the work was selected for Best American Poetry at least in part due to the perceived race of the author rather than purely for its own merit. (ETA - And that's a problem with the editor, not the author.)
  

  
  

  PS - I'm choosing to ignore the cheeky tweets by the author himself, which I'm pretty sure were a questionable attempt at humor.

  

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• CeeCeeSugaPie member

  

  September 2015

  Honestly, I pay very little attention to an author's gender or race. If it seems like a book I would enjoy based on the description or from recs, I read it. 

   

  
  

  

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• SusieBW member

  

  September 2015

  GilliC said:

  
  

  I think the thing that sits uncomfortably with me is that the work was selected for Best American Poetry at least in part due to the perceived race of the author rather than purely for its own merit.
  

  
  

  This makes me uncomfortable.  Race and gender should have absolutely nothing to do with awards for writing.  If it was an award for "american poetry," all that should matter is whether the writer is American.  Their race, ethnicity, gender or anything else shouldn't be factors.
  
  Generally, I'm with PP, and I don't pay much attention to author biographies at all.
  

  
  
  
  
  Sugar & Spice

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• julie37619 member

  

  September 2015

  This is FASCINATING to me.  Not from a perspective of is it right or wrong but from the perspective that it worked.  I've read so much lately about how difficult it is for minority authors to get published.  That writers of color are much less likely to have the same work published than white authors.  In this case it seems like the exact opposite happened.  I wonder if this is related to the fact that he's writing poetry versus prose?  Or if it's a fluke?  Or if the topic of his poem felt more genuine coming from an Asian author?  

  
  

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• julie37619 member

  

  September 2015

  Also, if an author of color used a pseudonym (maybe a Jewish sounding name) to get a work published and then publicized the use of the pseudonym in an effort to expose racism in publishing, we wouldn't mind, right?  He's using the poem and pseudonym to make a statement that I find interesting in light of the current talk of diversity in publishing.

  
  

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