On Pen Names, Protected Class Appropriation, and Colonial Legacy

Pen names, by definition, are meant to obscure a writer’s true identity and/or embellish her/his public persona. Because names are political entities—they’re gendered, for the most part; can indicate race and class; and often act as maps in identifying a person’s ethnic origins—the pen name a writer chooses makes a very deliberate statement not only about how the writer wants to be...