In my 20s, one of my sisters congratulated me on my published book of poems. I was confused. I soon learned the book was written by another Alice Walker, an African-American who later wrote The Color Purple. If you Google Alice Walker in the United States, 5,840,000 appear, many added when Google included Ancestry.com’s database.

Walker was once the 19^th most popular surname in the United States. I intended to be a famous writer too. Alice Walker, the Black and Alice Walker, the White?

I invented my first pen name using my mother’s maiden name: A. Delaney Walker. I hid Alice because, in the early 70s, few women were published.

When I moved to Vancouver, Canada for graduate school, I used Delaney as my first name. Delaney was free of negative emotions which littered my childhood.

Later, in Los Angeles, a three-syllable first name seemed excessive. I then invented Dana. When I worked overseas in the Middle East this was an excellent first name. Dana meant the best pearl from the Gulf.

A more secretive pen name was essential for publishing my books while working in Oman. Men as Virgins and The Guitar Player & The Lady Killer are brimming with sex. If my employers, students or colleagues ever discovered A. Delaney Walker was me, I would lose my job in conservative Oman, then later in Turkey.

When young, I loved D. H. Lawrence and Emile Zola. I invented Zola Lawrence. Fortunately, for many years, the only other Zola Lawrence in the States was a New York veterinarian. Then a college football player appeared with that name.

In Turkey, the first year I used Delaney. Colleagues rarely called me by name. Perhaps it was too long? The second year at a new university in a new city, I tried Dana. However, Dana means cow in Turkish. Reluctantly, I returned to Alice.

Once retired in Portugal, I revived Dana. I soon learned that Alice was a common Portuguese name. Now at 68, I am far removed from my childhood. I don’t mind, too much, using the name Alice. Sadly, a small part of me sometimes shudders at the sound of that name.

By changing my name and how I relate to myself with various names helped me create layers of consciousness within myself. It’s not multiple personalities – because I remain the same. It’s just different realities go with the different names and places I’ve experienced and people I’ve loved.

Retired in Portugal, I added A. Delaney Walker to the cover of Men as Virgins. Virgins has been described as “brutally honest”, and like the Greek meaning of my birth name, ‘truth’.