Literary Hub » pen names

Can you match the novelist to their <em> nom de plume? </em>

Can you match the novelist to their nom de plume?

By Brittany Allen | August 11, 2025

How Four Literary Icons Chose the Pen Names That Made Them Famous

How Four Literary Icons Chose the Pen Names That Made Them Famous

Kirsty McHugh and Ian Scott Explore the Reasoning Behind Some Very Well Known Pseudonyms

By Kirsty McHugh and Ian Scott | June 20, 2025

When an (Extremely Prolific) Author Shares Your Name

When an (Extremely Prolific) Author Shares Your Name

Bryan Alistair Charles on the Unexpected Gifts of Discovering Brian Charles

By Bryan Alistair Charles | March 11, 2025

What you need to know about the Freydís Moon author scandal.

What you need to know about the Freydís Moon author scandal.

By Brittany Allen | April 22, 2024

Why I Wrote My Memoir, a Letter to My Transgender Daughter, Under a Pen Name

Why I Wrote My Memoir, a Letter to My Transgender Daughter, Under a Pen Name

“The protective force field is, in the end, imaginary.”

By Carolyn Hays | September 6, 2022

To Write a Comic Novel, I Had to Shed the Weight of Expectation (and Adopt a New Name)

To Write a Comic Novel, I Had to Shed the Weight of Expectation (and Adopt a New Name)

Tahmima Anam on the Serious Business of Being Funny

By Tahmima Anam | July 13, 2021

Best Reviewed
Books of the Week

The Surprising Stories Behind the Pen Names of 10 Famous Authors

By Emily Temple | June 28, 2018

How Rebel Ex-Punk Stona Fitch Became Rory Flynn

By Marian Ryan | June 8, 2016

Anton Chekhov: A Post-Post-Modernist Way Ahead of His Time

By Peter Constantine | May 9, 2016

An Open Letter to An Unnamed White Writer

An Open Letter to An Unnamed White Writer

P.E. Garcia Responds to the Pseudonymous Confession of Jesus Angel Garcia

By P.E. Garcia | October 27, 2015

When Pen Names Become People

When Pen Names Become People

The Freedom and Pitfalls of Literary (Mis)Identity

By Tobias Carroll | October 7, 2015