The phrase "author depicted" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when discussing how an author represents or illustrates characters, themes, or events in their work.
Example: "In her novel, the author depicted the struggles of the protagonist with great sensitivity and depth."
Alternatives: "the author illustrated" or "the author portrayed".
The author depicts Ms. Walters as a driven, insecure, compulsive, ego-centered perfectionist.
The author depicts Java as almost an ideal society "of social harmony, empathy and gentleness".
Sketch by unknown author depicting students drinking at Princeton, "It's a Way We Have at Old Nassau," ca. 1863.
The author depicts Marcus and his new love Corelia's struggle to survive the eruption of the volcano and Pompeii's destruction.
Foruli has published a special edition of his first novel, Revelation Space, that includes eight exclusive art prints of paintings by the author depicting scenes from the novel.
Who can afford this kind of medicine, in a society the author depicts as no richer, indeed perhaps less rich, than ours?
Ferry quotes La vorágine, by José Eustacio Rivera, in which the author depicts the conflict of man with the barbarity that surrounds him.
Early in "The Abstinence Teacher," which Mr. Perrotta is adapting into a screenplay for the directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, the husband-and-wife team behind "Little Miss Sunshine," the author depicts a similar scene.
That's the first peculiarity in the book - I know Keyes has a soft heart, but never before have I come across a novel in which the author depicts a literary agent as upright, worthy and deserving of every penny.
His novel "By Night in Chile" is a 130-page rant -- part confession, part justification, part delirium -- by a dying man, representative of an intellectual class that the author depicts as alternately tugging its leash and licking it.
