dumbfoundry

"So I went to court and changed my surname to Ogawa, and I figured while I was at it, I’d go ahead and add Ai as my middle name, my pen-name that I’d been writing under for some time (I took the name in 1969). Ai means “love' in Japanese.

But some people won’t stop bringing up my stepfather’s name. My first editor at Houghton-Mifflin insisted on putting that name on my book even though I asked her not to. And the New York Times will say things like: “Her real name is Florence Anthony.' It’s not as if I don’t know my own goddamn name, my own life. My father’s name was Michael Ogawa. And my legal name is Ai Ogawa. Actually, Ai is my middle name; Florence is still my first name.

In the 80s, I was living in Cambridge and had to go get an ID made, and I took a copy of my book, Killing Floor, and said: “Look, this is me. This is my book. I don’t want to be Florence anymore, just put Ai on my ID.' And they did it."

This entry was posted by Ivy on Wednesday, April 05, 2006 at 3:37 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.