Writing for white gatekeepers: Kawika Guillermo on pen names, identity, and more.

So I just read this great article by Kawika Guillermo on why they write under a pen name, and well….damn.

It’s pretty dang relatable. There’s a reason I avoid the “Asian Immigrant Sad Stories” section in every book store that really pretends they got something deep going on. Right next to the political treatise on why Chinese people are genetically disposed to authoritarianism, written by “I am Classical Liberal McGenocide is Okay, White Boy the III”.

Anyway, the article touches on a huge reason I prefer pseudonyms in so much of my work. I literally don’t think I can publish under my real name. It would be pointless. However, I suppose this gives me the opportunity to choose a name for myself.

Minority writes under real name: gets accused of being white, or gets asked why they aren’t telling stories about “your people” or “why are you writing sci-fi when you should be writing about sad boat people who died on the way to ‘Murica?”

Straight White People writes under fake minority name to “embody” the ethnic or queer experience: wins awards ¯\_(ツ)_/¯