Summarised by Centrist
Author Greg McGee, known for his rugby and bloke-centric writing, chose the female pseudonym “Alix Bosco” to ensure his female protagonist, Anna Markunas, would be seen as authentic.
The decision paid off. “His” debut crime novel, “Cut & Run” received critical acclaim, with readers and reviewers convinced of the female perspective. The book won the inaugural Ngaio Marsh Best Crime Novel Award in 2010 under this pseudonym.
“I firmly believe – of course there’s no proof, despite what the judges might now say – that ‘Cut & Run’ would not have won the Ngaio Marsh with my name on the cover,” McGee reflects.
McGee writes that his publisher was in favour of the ruse because as he reckoned, “women bought books about women, written by women. So Alix became Her.”
On adopting a female pseudonym, the McGee wrote:
“I worried that if my name was on the front of this book, Anna would have no chance of being accepted as a credible character.”
Ultimately, McGee challenges the arts community to focus on the substance of the work rather than the identity of the writer. As he puts it, “Believe the words on the page or don’t. Find them authentic or not. We shouldn’t need an authorial biography or biology to authenticate them: the words work in their mystical way, or they don’t.”
