LibAnswers: MLA FAQs

According to the 9th edition MLA Handbook, if you know that an author's name has changed and that they don't use their former name at all anymore (such as transgender authors), only list their works in the works cited under the name that they currently use, and do not include their previous name, even if what you're citing was published under their previous name(117).

Under other circumstances, such as when well-known authors use other pseudonyms, you have the leeway to consider whether it is useful or more clear to your reader to use the author's more well-known name. There are a few ways the 9th edition MLA Handbook says you can structure this(116):

• You can list the pseudonym the work was published under in the works-cited, then add the more well-known or relevant name in brackets:
  • Bachman, Richard [Stephen King]. The Long Walk. Signet, 1979.
• You can list the work under the most well-known name, and put the pseudonym in brackets with the phrase "published as":
  • King, Stephen [published as Richard Bachman]. The Long Walk. Signet, 1979.
• You can put just the well-known name in brackets and not mention the pseudonym:
  • [King, Stephen]. The Long Walk. Signet, 1979.

If you're listing multiple works by the same author and one or multiple of the works is under a pseudonym, you can condense these works all to one entry, as you typically can do when citing multiple works by the same author. You again also have options on if and how to include the pseudonym, depending on your judgement call of the relevancy and importance to the reader(116-117):

King, Stephen. Christine. Penguin, 1983.

   ---. The Long Walk. Signet, 1979.

King, Stephen. Christine. Penguin, 1983.

   ---[published as Richard Bachman]. The Long Walk. Signet, 1979.

You can use the [published as] pretty liberally as you see fit when including multiple works by the same author that all may be under different pseudonyms.

A last option could be to list the publications under the different names, and cross-reference them(117):

Bachman, Richard [see also King, Stephen]. The Long Walk. Signet, 1979.

King, Stephen [see also Bachman, Richard]. Christine. Penguin, 1983.

Works Cited

MLA Handbook. 9th ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2021.