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Acclaimed Female Mystery Writer Revealed To Be Three Men

EnolaGaia

EnolaGaia

I knew the job was dangerous when I took it ...
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Well, this is awkward ... A Spanish female thriller author won a million-euro literary prize. At the award ceremony 'she' turned out to be three men.
Lauded Spanish female crime writer revealed to be three men

Spain's literary world has been thrown into chaos after a coveted book prize was awarded to "Carmen Mola" -- an acclaimed female thriller writer who turned out to be the pseudonym of three men.

Television scriptwriters Agustín Martínez, Jorge Díaz and Antonio Mercero shocked guests, who included Spain's King Felipe and Queen Letizia, at the Planeta awards Friday when they took to the stage to pick up the prize money and reveal the celebrated crime author did not actually exist.

On the website for Mola's agent, the writer -- who has been compared to Italy's esteemed novelist Elena Ferrante -- is described as a "Madrid-born author" writing under a pseudonym in a bid to remain anonymous. ...

In previous interviews with Spanish media, Martínez, Díaz and Mercero had presented Mola as a female university professor who lived in Madrid with her husband and children. ...

The Mola novels are well known for being gory and graphic -- and Spanish media has noted in the past that the contrast between Mola's supposed life as a married university professor and the violent nature of the books served as a useful marketing tool. ...

The news stunned many fellow literary figures -- and not everyone is thrilled about the news. ...

In 2020, a regional branch of the Women's Institute included Mola's work as part of a selection of "feminist reading" alongside Canadian poet Margaret Atwood and Spanish writer Irene Vallejo. ...
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FULL STORY: https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/17/europe/spanish-female-writer-revealed-intl-scli/index.html
 
EnolaGaia said:
Well, this is awkward ... A Spanish female thriller author won a million-euro literary prize. At the award ceremony 'she' turned out to be three men.

FULL STORY: https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/17/europe/spanish-female-writer-revealed-intl-scli/index.html
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LOL .. this is a bit like the successful author who secretly named herself George Elliot because female authors weren't taken seriously in her time. One of the songs my band wrote was called 'George Elliot Was A Transvestite'.
 
Swifty said:
LOL .. this is a bit like the successful author who secretly named herself George Elliot because female authors weren't taken seriously in her time. One of the songs my band wrote was called 'George Elliot Was A Transvestite'.
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J K Rowling also writes as Robert Galbraith
 
I have a possibly false memory of another author shortlisted for a women's writing prize turning out to be a man - said man also maybe a vicar or some other sort of church type. I have a feeling this was in the UK and tied to one of the larger prizes - and not really that long ago - but every search I do turns up this newer story.

That said, if my memory was shortlisted for any sort of prize it would eventually be outed as a junkyard someone threw down a staircase, and then set fire to.
 
Swifty said:
LOL .. this is a bit like the successful author who secretly named herself George Elliot because female authors weren't taken seriously in her time. One of the songs my band wrote was called 'George Elliot Was A Transvestite'.
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It's one ell, Swifty. As in - one 'ell of a writer.
 
Swifty said:
She was good enough to have a statue likeness of her built in Nuneaton...
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Unlike Larry Grayson - another fine Nuneatoner(?).

One was a woman who began her career in the guise of a man. The other a man who spent his early career dressed up as a woman.

Double standards, I tell you.

(Although apparently Larry himself was not keen on the idea of a statue - having been rightly offended by a councilman's ignorant response to the suggestion when it was first mooted.)
 
Nosmo King said:
Depends if the prize was specifically for female only authors, which in itself is a bit sexist :)
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I had a look, it's for unpublished novels, in Spanish, and only previous winners are ineligible. There don't seem to be any restrictions on gender, ethnicity, or country of residence and it doesn't appear to say anything about nom de plumes. Looks a bit like the Booker Prize in the UK.
 
Timble2 said:
I had a look, it's for unpublished novels, in Spanish, and only previous winners are ineligible. There don't seem to be any restrictions on gender, ethnicity, or country of residence and it doesn't appear to say anything about nom de plumes. Looks a bit like the Booker Prize in the UK.
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Trust you to sort it out. :wink2:
 
The Expanse novels are also written by two authors under one pseudonym.
 
Many of our classic works of literature was in fact written by penguins.
 
escargot said:
There are male writers who churn out Mills and Boon-type romantic novels under female names because that apparently helps them sell.
Nothing is as it seems.
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Yes, the late and great Roger Sanderson for one! He was the most wonderful and gentle of men, a member of the Romantic Novelists' Association and a terrific writer. He wrote medical romances.

It wasn't so much to help him sell, as that M&B expected their authors to be female. And please, please don't describe romances as 'churned out', Scargy!
 
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