9 Female Authors Who Wrote Under Male Pen Names

Rowling’s massively successful Harry Potter series needs no introduction. What some might not know, however, is that Joanne Rowling’s abbreviated and ambiguous pen name was a deliberate move pushed by her publisher to appeal to young male readers who might otherwise skip over books written by women. Rowling in fact adopted the middle name of Kathleen (her grandmother’s name) to round out the pseudonym, as no middle name was listed on her birth certificate. 

In 2013, Rowling published the crime thriller The Cuckoo’s Calling under the nom de plume Robert Galbraith. Of her decision to use a pseudonym, the author explained: “I really wanted to go back to the beginning of a writing career in this new genre, to work without hype or expectation and to receive totally unvarnished feedback.” Rowling/Galbraith has since published three additional crime novels in the series, with plans of continuing it well into the future.