Choosing to Use a Pseudonym for My Memoir by Meg McGuire

Posted by Kathleen Pooler/@kathypooler

“Your real name is a mortal name. Now you need one that is immortal, the one that takes the high stage and plays above the rest. You can’t be immortal and mortal at the same time.” 

― Keith Buckley, Scale: A Novel 

Fraught with liabilities due to the sensitivities of other people, choosing to publish a memoir that exposes details about other people is an issue that memoirists have to grapple with. I’m very pleased to feature Memoirist Meg McGuire–not her real name– in this post about why she decided to use a pseudonym for her memoir. She’ll take us through her own personal journey and share with us why and how she made the decision to publish under a pseudonym.

Meg is the author of Blinded by Hope : A Mother’s Journey Through Her Son’s Bipolar Illness and Addiction.

My reviews can be found on Amazon, Goodreads, LibraryThing and Riffle.

  Book Synopsis:

Blinded by Hope describes what it’s like to have an unusually bright, creative child―and then to have that child suddenly be hit with an illness that defies description and cure. Over the years, McGuire attributes her son’s lost jobs, broken relationships, legal troubles, and periodic hospitalizations to the manic phase of his illness, denying the severity of his growing drug use―but ultimately, she has to face her own addiction to rescuing him, and to forge a path for herself toward acceptance, resilience, and love. A wakeup call about the epidemic of mental illness, substance abuse, and mass incarceration in our society, Blinded by Hope shines a light on the shadow of family dynamics that shame, ignorance, and stigma rarely let the public see, and asks the question: How does a mother cope when love is not enough? Amazon link

Welcome, Meg!

Choosing to Use a Pseudonym for My Memoir

Choosing to use a pseudonym for my memoir was not an easy decision. I had never intended to use a pen name for my book, Blinded by Hope: My Journey through My Son’s Bipolar Illness and Addiction.

But it became necessary.

I had been teaching memoir writing for more than 20 years, emphasizing truth as the hallmark of memoir. How could I tell students to stand by the truth of their experience if I didn’t use my own name to stand behind mine? The reason I wrote the book was that I thought the mother’s story, my story, was important. I knew other mothers and fathers who had struggled with similar challenges with their children’s mental illness and addictive self-destructive patterns.

I wrote to give voice to their experience as well as my own. I wrote to fight the stigma associated with mental illness and substance abuse.

 

But when the pre-publication edition of my memoir was sent out for review and the book was announced on Facebook, a family member threatened legal action, sending me case law citing invasion of privacy. I knew I couldn’t be sued for slander because everything I had written was true. I already had the manuscript vetted by a literary lawyer to make sure nothing was slanderous, and I had removed any pertinent sections suggested by my attorney. All names and places had already been changed to protect the identity of family members. Only my name was identifiable. But the threat unsettled me.

 

I had originally asked my son to read the entire manuscript and to discuss with me any changes he wanted. He chose not to do so. In addition, I suggested that he write or co-write an epilogue with me that would add his memories and reflections. He declined.

 

However, he did agree to write his perspective on what it’s like to live with bipolar illness, and that is one of the most revealing chapters in the book. But subsequently, when publicity came out on Facebook with my name attached as author, he felt exposed. Seeing the reality of the book in print is always different than knowing it’s in process.

 

I decided to withdraw the book from publication. My publisher was not happy with my decision because the book had already gone out for review but they agreed that if I decided to publish it at another time under a pseudonym, they would support its publication. They knew the project had taken me 15 years to get to this point and they wanted to midwife the book to its completion. I spent the next three months trying to figure out what to do. After talking with my son and getting his agreement, I decided to publish it under a pseudonym.

 

I am not the first memoirist to use a pseudonym.

 

My first exposure to a contemporary memoir author using a pen name was in Comeback: A Mother and Daughter’s Journey through Hell and Back by Claire and Mia Fontaine, published in 2006. In the “Authors’ Note” at the beginning of the book, they had revealed that not only the names of people and geographical locations had been changed to protect their identity, but the names of the authors as well. Surprised that a memoir writer could use a pen name, I contacted them directly. Claire told me they had changed their names at the request of their publisher’s lawyers.

 

As you can imagine, writing a memoir under a pseudonym creates problems when it comes to publicity. I clearly cannot do readings in bookstores or appear on T. V., and I cannot rely on my professional reputation as an author. But I can do radio interviews about the challenges of mental illness and addiction in the family. One in four families in the U. S. will be affected by the two illnesses, and it is vital that effective treatment be found. Mental illness is the least funded illness by the National Institutes of Health and the stigma about addiction has led to a national epidemic. We criminalize people with mental illness and addiction instead of treating them.

 

I have been both criticized and lauded for using a pen name. A good friend said, “You have given your son too much power,” and I told her that was the compromise we struck. Others have written: “To give voice to others’ pain and hope and defeat is one of the greatest gifts we an give one another. You have done this beautifully whether with your own name or another.” Others have written that we need more stories like mine by mothers whose children have health challenges. “This book is a beautifully written and vital memoir, not only for other families in similar circumstances but also for all with an interest in the human spirit.”

Photo Credit: Google Free Images

If my book can give language to the experience of other families as well as support them as they travel this journey with their loved ones, then it really doesn’t matter if I use a pseudonym.

Does it?

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Thank  you, Meg, for your courage and persistence in sharing your story. You show how there are pros and cons to the decision but , in the end, the story is out there to inform, inspire and give hope to others struggling with mental illness and substance abuse in a family member. Congratulations on finding a way to publish it!

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How about you? have you ever considered publishing your memoir under a pseudonym?

We’d  love to hear from you. Please join in the conversation below~

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Next Week:

Monday, 7/31/17: 

“Lessons From the Garden: A Memoir Moment”

July 2017 Newsletter: Updates, Memoir Musings and Max Moments:

“Let Freedom Ring”