The GrubStreet letter doesn't mention ableism at all, despite it being at the core of this mess.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Woah, after commenting on this thread I searched "Bad Art Friend" on Twitter just for kicks and it turns out GrubStreet just released a statement:

https://grubstreet.org/blog/update-for-the-grubstreet-community-102921/

It looks like Sonya Larson and Alison Murphy (the GrubStreet director who advised Sonya to let the GrubStreet Writers of Color "draaaaag" Dawn) have been let go.

I read the whole thing. It is abjectly ridiculous, although I certainly did not expect better because that entire institution is rotten. Nothing happened to Castellani. It was signed by Eve Bridburg, who was involved with the original complaint by Dorland and was openly liking Twitter comments that were viciously anti-Dorland when the Kolker story broke. They found nothing wrong with their handling of the original complaint. There was no apology for how GrubStreet instructors behaved. There was no apology specifically to Dorland. There was no discussion of how Alison Murphy tried to weaponize the Grub Street writers of color.

It was dropped late on a Friday night, says nothing of substance, exonerates all but two people, and essentially whitewashes the entire foul incident. Disgusting.

Anonymous wrote:Woah, after commenting on this thread I searched "Bad Art Friend" on Twitter just for kicks and it turns out GrubStreet just released a statement:

https://grubstreet.org/blog/update-for-the-grubstreet-community-102921/

It looks like Sonya Larson and Alison Murphy (the GrubStreet director who advised Sonya to let the GrubStreet Writers of Color "draaaaag" Dawn) have been let go.

Woah, after commenting on this thread I searched "Bad Art Friend" on Twitter just for kicks and it turns out GrubStreet just released a statement:

https://grubstreet.org/blog/update-for-the-grubstreet-community-102921/

Anonymous wrote:Just signing on to say this is still bothering me. It needs to be on all the “chunky monkey” wiki pages.

Oh, same. I still think about this and get all bothered. It's weird. No other story of this nature has ever stuck with me quite like this.

Just signing on to say this is still bothering me. It needs to be on all the “chunky monkey” wiki pages.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Celeste Ng is a big disappointment, but you know who is fabulous? AMY TAN. I don't think it's possible to be wrong about this. She is a whole nother level.

What a weird comment. Asian-American writers aren’t interchangeable. How is Amy Tan at all relevant to this conversation?

Maybe not relevant, but the conversation has taken many turns. One being that, famous/successful writers such as Ng may be back-stabbing, shit-talking poor examples of humanhood, and that may be the writer culture, with Larson as an example of an aspiring one. I was thinking about female Asian writers who are the antithesis of that. Sorry for being weird. Not much new here but rehashing.

I liked "Little Fires" and it's disappointing to learn Ng is a bully. There are other writers, Asian or not, that I feel certain will not disappoint me -- their work and their lives show their humanity/generosity - they don't even need to tweet about it.

Anonymous wrote:Celeste Ng is a big disappointment, but you know who is fabulous? AMY TAN. I don't think it's possible to be wrong about this. She is a whole nother level.

What a weird comment. Asian-American writers aren’t interchangeable. How is Amy Tan at all relevant to this conversation?

I do actually think it happened. Dawn posted in the private support group, but she also posted about things to the rest of Facebook. The stuff about being honored at the Laker game and being the the Rose Bowl parade -- that stuff definitely got posted more widely. I am certain there were people who saw it and found it braggy and attention seeking, because it's hard to post anything to social media and not come off that way to at least someone. I don't do social media anymore for this reason. I found other people's posts annoying and I know they found mine annoying. I think these platforms are anti-social in many ways, in that they encourage this type of sharing and inevitably invoke jealous, resentful, eye-rolling responses in others. I think it's better when we know less about each others lives and people are not as encouraged to show off the good stuff in their lives.


+1! I agree with you 100%.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Celeste Ng is a big disappointment, but you know who is fabulous? AMY TAN. I don't think it's possible to be wrong about this. She is a whole nother level.

What did Amy Tan do?

She wrote many wonderful books, she sketches birds, she is fun to follow on FB, she is supportive and friendly with other artists. She is basically perfect and unassailable. Like, it's possible she did something bad in her past, but I doubt it could possibly smear the whole pucture.

Oh. I thought she had something to do with Bad Art Friend.

Nope, just identifying female Asian American writers who are fantastic human beings.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Celeste Ng is a big disappointment, but you know who is fabulous? AMY TAN. I don't think it's possible to be wrong about this. She is a whole nother level.

What did Amy Tan do?

She wrote many wonderful books, she sketches birds, she is fun to follow on FB, she is supportive and friendly with other artists. She is basically perfect and unassailable. Like, it's possible she did something bad in her past, but I doubt it could possibly smear the whole pucture.

Oh. I thought she had something to do with Bad Art Friend.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Celeste Ng is a big disappointment, but you know who is fabulous? AMY TAN. I don't think it's possible to be wrong about this. She is a whole nother level.

What did Amy Tan do?

She wrote many wonderful books, she sketches birds, she is fun to follow on FB, she is supportive and friendly with other artists. She is basically perfect and unassailable. Like, it's possible she did something bad in her past, but I doubt it could possibly smear the whole pucture.

Anonymous wrote:Celeste Ng is a big disappointment, but you know who is fabulous? AMY TAN. I don't think it's possible to be wrong about this. She is a whole nother level.

What did Amy Tan do?

Anonymous wrote:Celeste Ng is a big disappointment, but you know who is fabulous? AMY TAN. I don't think it's possible to be wrong about this. She is a whole nother level.

Ooh, and I have another one: CHANEL MILLER. What an amazing young woman. Highly recommend her book.

Celeste Ng is a big disappointment, but you know who is fabulous? AMY TAN. I don't think it's possible to be wrong about this. She is a whole nother level.