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38-429: " Who Is the Bad Art Friend? " is a 2021 New York Times Magazine feature story by Robert Kolker about a feud between two writers , Dawn Dorland and Sonya Larson. The piece focused on accusations that GrubStreet employee Sonya Larson had included a letter written by former GrubStreet instructor Dawn Dorland in her short story The Kindest . Though Dorland and Larson had been involved in ongoing lawsuits since 2018 and

76-476: A 16-page spread of photographs documenting Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee , a "costly feat" that resulted in a wildly popular issue and helped boost the magazine to success. In its early years, The New York Times Magazine began a tradition of publishing the writing of well-known contributors, from W. E. B. Du Bois and Albert Einstein to numerous sitting and future U.S. Presidents . Editor Lester Markel , an "intense and autocratic " journalist who oversaw

114-422: A highly contentious part of the magazine. In 2004, The New York Times Magazine began publishing an entire supplement devoted to style. Titled T , the supplement is edited by Deborah Needleman and appears 14 times a year. In 2009, it launched a Qatari Edition as a standalone magazine. In 2006, the magazine introduced two other supplements: PLAY , a sports magazine published every other month, and KEY ,

152-438: A jury." The text of Larson's story The Kindest was among the court documents. It was reviewed unfavorably by The New Yorker staff writer Katy Waldman, who criticized the story's "cartoon of the donor character," adding "the prose is bad." On October 12, Grubstreet announced they would hire an expert to look into the ongoing dispute, saying, "Bluntly, we are appalled by the disconnect between GrubStreet's stated values and

190-475: A look at the ongoing legal tangle. In an email Kolker described as "straightforward", Dorland wrote: This dispute, on top of just being surreal, has cost my family a lot of money we didn't have...And, as I am learning now through the legal discovery process, cost me my writing community back in Boston, where I cut my teeth as a writer. According to Kolker, he pitched the story to his New York Times Magazine editor as

228-753: A non-judgmental account of a complex dispute. He and his editor agreed on "a story that would present both Ms. Dorland's and Ms. Larson's side faithfully, while explaining to readers how, moment by moment, all of this unfolded." Kolker worked to establish "trust and understanding" with both Dorland and Larson in off-the-record interviews, before beginning work on the story in February. On October 5, 2021, Kolker described his about-to-be published story on his Twitter account as "Plenty of plot twists in my new story in this weekend's @NYTmag—a writing-world potboiler about inspiration and appropriation (and litigation)." After Kolker's article appeared (October 5, 2021), response to it

266-577: A real estate magazine published twice a year. In September 2010, as part of a greater effort to reinvigorate the magazine, Times editor Bill Keller hired former staff member and then-editor of Bloomberg Businessweek , Hugo Lindgren , as the editor of The New York Times Magazine . As part of a series of new staff hires upon assuming his new role, Lindgren first hired then–executive editor of O, The Oprah Magazine Lauren Kern to be his deputy editor and then hired then-editor of TNR.com, The New Republic magazine's website, Greg Veis , to edit

304-412: A reply that described her kidney donation as "a tremendous thing." Six weeks after her surgery, Dorland made her first public posting to Facebook about her kidney donation. In October, 2015, Sonya Larson sent out to "Chunky Monkeys" (a friend-group of successful writers working at GrubStreet) the first draft of her story "The Kindest", where a young Chinese-American woman gets a kidney transplant and later

342-424: A rotating basis (including diagramless crossword puzzles and anacrostics ). In January 2012, humorist John Hodgman , who hosts his comedy court show podcast Judge John Hodgman , began writing a regular column "Judge John Hodgman Rules" (formerly "Ask Judge John Hodgman") for "The One-Page Magazine". In 2014, Jake Silverstein , who had been editor-in-chief at Texas Monthly , replaced Lindgren as editor of

380-409: A stranger with kidney failure . The wife of her kidney recipient (who was not a compatible donor for her husband) gave one of her kidneys to yet another person in need—this is called a " chain donation ". After Dawn Dorland's surgery, she drafted a letter to the person at the end of the "chain"—that is, the person who needed a kidney but had no friend or family member willing to give one. Kolker, calling

418-534: A strong sense of empathy. While others might desire to give to a family member or friend, to me the suffering of strangers is just as real. In June, 2016, Dorland wrote to Larson: "Hey, I heard you wrote a kidney-donation story. Cool! Can I read it?" Larson pushed back, in the email exchange that followed, until Dorland accepted her refusal. Although the magazine American Short Fiction published "The Kindest" in August, 2017, Dorland did not read it until June, 2018, when it

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456-449: A visit from the kidney donor, a narcissistic and annoying white woman whose name is Dawn Rothario. Next day, one group member texted to say, "I'm now following Dawn Dorland's kidney posts with creepy fascination." Another later remembered, "everybody in that workshop immediately recognized dawn dorland in the story..." On the advice of her writing group, Larson changed the character's name from "Dawn" to "Rose". But she had trouble modifying

494-626: A workshop leader there, while Larson was until recently the director of Grubstreet's Muse in the Marketplace conference. Larson, who grew up in Minnesota with a white father and a Chinese-American mother, has published both fiction and non-fiction, winning some awards. Dorland, who now lives in California, is at work on a novel inspired by her hardscrabble Iowa upbringing. The contested story, which Sonya Larson published in two different audio versions and in

532-498: Is generally more challenging than its counterparts featured on the other days of the week. Usually, a second puzzle is included with the crossword puzzle. The variety of the second puzzle varies each week. These have included acrostic puzzles, diagramless crossword puzzles, and other puzzles varying from the traditional crossword puzzle. The puzzles are edited by Will Shortz, the host of the on-air puzzle segment of NPR 's Weekend Edition Sunday , introduced as "the puzzlemaster". In

570-445: Is only one winner from this story: Robert Kolker." WGBH quoted Brianna Wu asking if the story's publication was "really worth the damage that they've done to these two women's lives?" In a follow-up NYT story (October 20, 2021), Kolker expressed concern that some of his readers were "identifying emotionally with one side—and getting mad," saying "I feel that a lot of the debate that continues to swirl across Twitter risks flattening

608-400: The broadsheet paper and not an insert as it is today. The creation of a "serious" Sunday magazine was part of a massive overhaul of the newspaper instigated that year by its new owner, Adolph Ochs , who also banned fiction , comic strips , and gossip columns from the paper, and is generally credited with saving The New York Times from financial ruin. In 1897, the magazine published

646-425: The "front of the book" section of the magazine. In December 2010, Lindgren hired Joel Lovell, formerly story editor at GQ magazine, as deputy editor. In 2011, Kaminer replaced Cohen as the author of the column, and in 2012 Chuck Klosterman replaced Kaminer. Klosterman left in early 2015 to be replaced by a trio of authors, Kenji Yoshino , Amy Bloom , and Jack Shafer , who used a conversational format; Shafer

684-506: The 2017 edition of American Short Fiction , is about a working-class Chinese-American woman named Chuntao, an alcoholic who gets a kidney donation from a wealthy white woman who then feels entitled to pester Chuntao. According to Larson, whose work often treats racial issues, the story is a critique of " white-savior dynamics. Kolker begins his article by describing Dawn Dorland ("openhearted and eager", although he says that some people find her "a little extra") who gave one of her kidneys to

722-464: The Chunky Monkeys writing group that was released as part of discovery during the trial, Castellani had written of Dorland, "my mission in life is going to be to exact revenge on this pestilence of a person". New York Times Magazine Its first issue was published on September 6, 1896, and contained the first photographs ever printed in the newspaper. In the early decades, it was a section of

760-457: The September 18, 2005, issue of the magazine, an editors' note announced the addition of The Funny Pages , a literary section of the magazine intended to "engage our readers in some ways we haven't yet tried—and to acknowledge that it takes many different types of writing to tell the story of our time". Although The Funny Pages is no longer published in the magazine, it was made up of three parts:

798-1527: The Small Presses . The journal was purchased in 2003 by Badgerdog Literary Publishing and released the first issue of its second run in Winter 2006. Following a hiatus in 2012, the magazine reorganized under current editors Rebecca Markovits and Adeena Reitberger, and is now published by the Austin, Texas-based non-profit American Short Fiction, Inc. The journal maintains high standards for publication. In April 2017, Bret Anthony Johnston 's story, "Half of What Atlee Rouse Knows About Horses" featured in American Short Fiction 's 25th Anniversary Issue, won The Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award. Two recent stories, Danielle Evans's "Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain" and Kyle McCarthy's "Ancient Rome" have been chosen to appear in The Best American Short Stories 2017 . Contributions have also been anthologized in The Best American Nonrequired Reading and have appeared in Best American Fantasy . 1. American Short Fiction : About 2. Ankrum, Nora. "Write of Passage" 3. McGarvey, Shannon. "Call it

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836-649: The Strip (a multipart graphic novel that spanned weeks), the Sunday Serial (a genre fiction serial novel that also spanned weeks), and True-Life Tales (a humorous personal essay , by a different author each week). On July 8, 2007, the magazine stopped printing True-Life Tales. The section has been criticized for being unfunny, sometimes nonsensical, and excessively highbrow ; in a 2006 poll conducted by Gawker.com asking, "Do you now find—or have you ever found— The Funny Pages funny?", 92% of 1824 voters answered "No". Of

874-461: The Sunday Times from the 1920s through the 1950s, encouraged the idea of the magazine as a forum for ideas. During his tenure, writers such as Leo Tolstoy , Thomas Mann , Gertrude Stein , and Tennessee Williams contributed pieces to the magazine. When, in 1970, The New York Times introduced its first op-ed page, the magazine shifted away from publishing as many editorial pieces. In 1979,

912-454: The Sunday magazine. U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey selects and introduces poems weekly, including from poets Tomas Tranströmer , Carlos Pintado , and Gregory Pardlo . The magazine features the Sunday version of the crossword puzzle along with other puzzles. The puzzles have been very popular features since their introduction. The Sunday crossword puzzle has more clues and squares and

950-544: The alleged behavior by some that has come to light." According to Publishers Weekly , "the involvement of so many leaders in the organization's community—and the release of potentially disparaging emails by them—prompted an internal review." On October 29, 2021, Eve Bridburg announced that Larson and two of her colleagues (Alison Murphy and board member Jennifer De Leon) would leave their leadership positions at GrubStreet, but Artistic Director Christopher Castellani would remain in his role. In private correspondence with Larson and

988-416: The letter "heartfelt", quotes from it at length: Personally, my childhood was marked by trauma and abuse; I didn't have the opportunity to form secure attachments with my family of origin. A positive outcome of my early life is empathy, that it opened a well of possibility between me and strangers. While perhaps many more people would be motivated to donate an organ to a friend or family member in need, to me,

1026-407: The magazine began publishing Pulitzer Prize –winning journalist William Safire 's " On Language ", a column discussing issues of English grammar, use and etymology . Safire's column steadily gained popularity and by 1990 was generating "more mail than anything else" in the magazine. In 1999, the magazine debuted "The Ethicist", an advice column written by humorist Randy Cohen that quickly became

1064-459: The piece into a tale of good guys and bad guys." Hollywood Reporter (November 3, 2021) published a column by a lawyer and a law student, "Who is the bad copyright friend?", examining Larson's claim that what Dorland called plagiarism of her letter was really " fair use ". Referencing a side-by-side graphic of the two letters that had been posted by Twitter user "Kidneygate", the authors concluded that Larson would face "an uphill battle to convince

1102-563: The real-life Dorland was warranted was hotly debated online. Some saw Dorland as a desperate narcissist who only donated her kidney for praise and adulation. Others saw Larson as a cruel opportunist who exploited a friendship for personal gain. Some found fault in the actions of both women. Some commentators criticized the article for its effect on Dorland and Larson. According to Louise Perry in New Statesman , while Dorland and Larson got harsh treatment from "the internet's kangaroo court...There

1140-649: The serial novels, At Risk , Limitations , The Overlook , Gentlemen of the Road , and The Lemur have since been published in book form with added material. American Short Fiction American Short Fiction is a nationally circulated literary magazine founded in 1991 and based in Austin, Texas . Issued triannually, American Short Fiction publishes short fiction, novel excerpts, an occasional novella, and strives to publish work by both established and emerging contemporary authors. The magazine seeks out stories "that dive into

1178-399: The story of their feud had been covered by the media before, Kolker's piece went viral and led to ongoing scrutiny of the case. Kolker's article centers around two writers and a short story, "The Kindest", published by one of them but contested by the other. Dawn Dorland and Sonya Larson met some time around 2007 at Boston's Grubstreet Writing Center. Dorland was at first a student and later

Who Is the Bad Art Friend? - Misplaced Pages Continue

1216-447: The suffering of strangers is just as real. Dorland posted the letter to a private Facebook group she had created, before her surgery, for family and friends who wanted to get updates and offer support. Even before her June 24, 2015 surgery, Dorland noticed that one person in the group was reading every post but not interacting. That group member was Sonya Larson. Unsure what it meant, Dorland sent her an email in August, eventually getting

1254-553: The text of a letter, included in her story, sent by kidney donor "Rose" to her recipient, saying in January, 2016, "it literally has sentences that I verbatim grabbed from Dawn's letter on FB. I've tried to change it but I can't seem to." Kolker's 2021 story included one paragraph of the letter as Audible recorded it in 2016: My own childhood was marked by trauma and abuse; I wasn't given an opportunity to form secure attachments with my family of origin. But in adulthood that experience provided

1292-658: The wreck, that stretch the reader between recognition and surprise, that conjure a particular world with delicate expertise—stories that take a different way home." American Short Fiction sponsors two annual short fiction contests, the Halifax Ranch Fiction Prize judged in 2018 by ZZ Packer , and the American Short(er) Fiction Prize. The magazine also sponsors a reading series in Austin as well as online workshops for fiction writers. Founded in 1991 by editor Laura Furman , American Short Fiction

1330-550: Was called " viral ". Elizabeth Bruenig in The Atlantic (October 7, 2021), said, "The story swiftly became an obsession among the very online, as readers debated its moral and meaning." WBUR summed up the online debate as follows: The Dorland-like character in "The Kindest"—which Larson has said was only partly modeled on Dorland—is portrayed as an entitled egotist with a white savior complex whose altruism contains hidden motives. Whether this seemingly thinly-veiled takedown of

1368-691: Was made available for free online. As the Boston Globe describes Dorland's reaction, "she was surprised to find a donor letter in Larson's fiction that bore striking similarities to her own. Dorland's feeling of personal betrayal turned to professional indignation." Although the underlying story received some press attention in 2018, when the Boston Book Festival canceled its One City One Story event due to plagiarism concerns, Kolker first learned of it in January 2021, when Dawn Dorland wrote to ask him to take

1406-594: Was published until 1998 by the University of Texas Press in cooperation with the Texas Center for Writers and National Public Radio 's "The Sound of Writing" broadcast. During its initial run, the magazine was a two-time finalist for the National Magazine Award for fiction and contributors’ work was anthologized in The Best American Short Stories , The O. Henry Prize Stories , and The Pushcart Prize: Best of

1444-467: Was replaced three months later by Kwame Anthony Appiah , who assumed sole authorship of the column in September 2015. "Consumed", Rob Walker 's regular column on consumer culture, debuted in 2004. The Sunday Magazine also features a puzzle page , edited by Will Shortz , that features a crossword puzzle with a larger grid than those featured in the Times during the week, along with other types of puzzles on

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