Carmela ciuraru biography sample

Your new book, Nom de Plume, explores the complicated stories behind well-known and obscure pseudonyms. You write, “To a certain extent, all writing involves impersonation—the act of summoning an authorial “I” to create the speaker of a poem or the characters in a novel…But some writers are unable to engage in such alchemy, or don’t want to, without relying on an alter ego.”  What interested you in this topic? Why write a book pen names?

It happened by accident. I had an assignment from a magazine where the editor said, “The theme of this issue is secrets. How can you apply that to literature?” So my mind went to pseudonyms, and I wrote a small piece. After the assignment, I had a mountain of research left over and I wanted to keep going. I think the idea that a name could help you unlock creativity, that it could affect your psyche in such deep ways, is fascinating.

Did you ever use a pseudonym?

Yeah, I did. You know, I have a very difficult name. I hated it. I was ashamed