A great SF author... who does not exist.

Edson McCann won a new SF writing award despite (a) submitting after deadline and (b) actually being Fredrik Pohl and Lester Del Rey, already well-established and, oh, friend of the judge and sometimes published by the contest sponsors. Not the most dramatic case of needing a nom de plume, but the backstory of a nuclear physicist writing in secret about the sinister power of corporate interests would be...