What We Owe: Bad Art Friend Discussion

It is easy enough to trigger a storm on Twitter, but some stories create a hurricane. ‘Who Is The Bad Art Friend?’, a New York Times Article by Robert Kolker, was one such story and has whipped up a slew of newspaper articles, Twitter threads, and memes ever since.

Centred around the court case of Dawn Dorland vs Sonya Larson, the story covers ground from kidney donations to Facebook etiquette, subpoenaed group chats and insular writing community drama. We don’t want to spoil the story for you, but suffice it say it’s a wild one.

This session will comprise of a discussion focused on the relevant writing aspects of the story. Both sides field a series of key disputes, surrounding the plagiarism of ideas and Facebook posts, the etiquette of writing communities, and above all the kindnesses we do (or do not) owe to our fellow writers. Is using someone else’s kidney donation for a story acceptable? What if said story turns them into an ugly caricature? We can’t wait to hear your thoughts!