"Iowa City Literary Harassment"
I have cancer care and was being cared for intermittently by a man who pretended to be friends with me. His friends would not look at or speak to me at an event to the point I started to cry because of chemotherapy and trauma. I was running from the building, tears bursting out of my eyes, when I ran straight into an old friend and the most famous author in town. He gave me a big hug and said, "I see you have cancer, kid." Then I sat down for 2 minutes with him and bawled about how everyone was treating me like I had super leprosy. He consoled me. Not one minute into the shitstorm, my harasser, a woman nearly in her 50's, and an emerging author, comes running straight towards me like someone had texted her to catch me in the act of crying and takes photographs of the scene. She then posts them without permission and without tagging either of us online and hides them inside another instagram post. A friend told me about the post. I asked her to take it down. I blocked her. I had a really strong emotional reaction to being publicly shamed online by a peer. She then launched a six-month long harassement campaign while I recovered from cancer, called the police on me, and tried to get me fired from every community I knew. She used false victimhood and intimidation to gain leverage over an autistic woman with three forms of cancer so she did not look like a bad guy. She interfered with my job recommendations, my friendships, my art success, and I never did anything but be kind to this monster. She still thinks she's the victim and won, as they often do, because now she teaches the the most prestigious writing school in the world. Do not go to Iowa for creative writing. These people suck. Luckily, I have created a group of business and lawyer and designer friends who know that there are standards of professionalism and humanity across the board for all people. This woman volunteered at this job, and I guess they do not fire volunteer artists in Iowa. I have the photographs she took, and out of respect for the kind author in the photograph, I will not share them.