To write “as” someone else can be a way to gather illegitimate prestige, or a way to refuse an unwanted stigma, or even a way to call into question the notion of identity itself. In this talk, Paul LaFarge will consider some writers who have assumed false identities, and consider their motives (insofar as they're knowable) and the consequences of their choices, for themselves, their work, and our ideas about literature generally.
Paul LaFarge is the author of several novels, most recently The Night Ocean (Penguin Press, 2017). His essays and stories have been published in The New Yorker, Harper's, The New Republic, McSweeney's, and so on. He lives in upstate New York.