Nope, I am not going to link to the loathsome article that "outs" Elena Ferrante. I am not going to read it, either. She asked for privacy and anonymity. She committed no crime. She wrote, I hope will write, spectacular books. That is enough for me. That was the contract she created, and her readers agreed to it.
There is so much I could say about this: how irresponsible the New York Review of Books for pursuing this, how gendered this feels to me. Doxxing comes to an august literary publication. I have used a pseudonym on occasion. I have used my first initial when submitting a sci-fi screenplay to companies and competitions. I am sure you can talk to many many writers, particularly women, gender non-conforming who have made similar choices. We have many reasons for it. Ask us!
This is a bad business.
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