Who is the best author who changed their name so that it wouldn't be obvious they were not a man?
J.K. Rowling. Charlotte Bronte. Harper Lee. J.D. Robb.
What do all these authors have in common? They all disguised their names. Either by using an androgynous form of their names or an outright male-sounding pen name. And the reason they did so both in the past and today is because of rampant sexism within the publishing industry.
So May's poll is for the authors who changed their names to male sounding or ambiguous names to avoid the sexist gatekeepers of the publishing industry.
The Rules
1- You might have to do a tiny bit of research for this poll, but in the interest of inclusion, I'm not going to run around verifying why each author chose their pen name. Fortunately Google offers a lot of lists of just these sorts of writers. And as long as you don't nominate a man, we're fine. And as there are more than two genders (all of which would have difficulty from the cis male gatekeepers) if you find any non-binary writers who have changed their names, you can nominate them as well.
2- Since this isn't strictly a fiction poll, you may nominate writers in other genres, but remember that our poll is about the best. This isn't a Daily Double to see how many you can come up with. But if you want to put up a blogger or non-fiction writer that'll be fine.
3- You may nominate two (2) authors. (Remember that I am a horrid and unyielding power hungry monster here at Writing About Writing. To encourage reading and reading comprehension I will NOT take any characters beyond your second nomination.) If you nominate more than two characters, I will only take your first two and consider any beyond that to be "pre-seconding" for a future nomination.
4- You may (and should) second as many nominations of others as you wish. No characters will be going on to our poll that doesn't get at least one second.
5- Please put your nominations here. I will take books nominated as comments to this post on other social media; however, they may not get the seconds you need because no one will see them.
6- Any "What about the menz!" comments will be removed.
CL Moore (Catherine Lucille Moore)
ReplyDeleteAndre Norton (Alice Norton) -
CJ Cherryh (Carolyn Janice Cherry)
Second Moore and Cherryh
DeleteSecond Norton.
Delete-CM Scott
2nd Norton!!
DeleteSE Hinton is my favorite
ReplyDeleteSecond
Delete-CM Scott
Leigh Brackett
ReplyDeleteCS Friedman
JD Robb
ReplyDeletesecond
DeleteSeconded
Delete-CM Scott
George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)
ReplyDelete2nd George Eliot
DeleteYes!!
DeleteA L Kennedy, (Alison Kennedy). Granta young novelist of the year award winner (a while ago now I suppose), guardian commentator, and a great short story writer.
ReplyDeleteRobin Hobb! I recommend her twice!
ReplyDeleteSecond Robin Hobb!
DeleteHarper Lee!
ReplyDelete2nd Harper Lee
DeleteN.K. Jemison
ReplyDeleteSecond
DeleteAnd it's Jemisin. :)
DeleteSecond C.J. Cherryh, Robin Hobb, and C.S. Friedman
ReplyDeleteJames Tiptree, Jr (Alice Bradley Sheldon).
ReplyDeleteSecond JD Robb, CJ Cherryh, NK Jemison
Second Tiptree
DeleteBronte sisters
ReplyDeleteSeconded
Delete-CM Scott
George Sand (Amantine Dupon) and George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans).
ReplyDeleteI'll go for the obvious: J.K. Rowling
ReplyDeleteSeconded
Delete-CM Scott
Emily Bronte (Ellis Bell), Charlotte Bronte (Curar Bell)
ReplyDeletesecond Currer Bell
DeletePD James
ReplyDeleteAnother for James Tiptree Jr.
ReplyDeleteLouisa May Alcott (A.M. Barnard)
ReplyDelete-CM Scott
second
DeleteE.L. Konigsburg
ReplyDelete-CM Scott
Lesser known, but Ellis Peters, author of the Cadfael novels.
ReplyDeleteI did not know that, but second. Those are good books
DeleteI did not know that, but second. Those are good books
Delete