📚 What a journey!
Article excerpt
A writer accused of AI use has won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize.
July 2, 2026View Online | Join All Access | Listen
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THE HEADLINE
Writer accused of AI use wins Commonwealth Prize
What a journey! Jamir Nazir, one of the three finalists for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize who were accused of using AI to create their work, has won the overall prize.
ICYMI:
Accusations began swirling online in May shortly after the Commonwealth Foundation announced the five regional winners who would go on to compete for the overall prize.
Readers, writers, and even an AI expert pointed to what they believed were “obvious markers of AI writing” in the nominated stories.
Citing concerns about “editorial integrity,” Granta Magazine, which has published the winning stories for more than a decade, ended its partnership with the Prize.
But! The Commonwealth Foundation cleared Nazir and his fellow finalists last week after a month-long investigation that, notably, did not incorporate AI-detection software.
Nazir, who has not commented on the allegations, discusses his inspiration and writing process in a short film released by the Commonwealth Foundation.
It’s just about impossible to prove a negative where AI is concerned.
The linguistic tics like em dashes and “not X, but Y” constructions that can indicate a work was AI-generated have their origins in the human-generated works large language models were trained on.
Showing your work with notes, drafts, and other documentation is about to become important for writers and could figure into future award selection processes.
See for yourself. You can read Nazir’s winning story, “The Serpent in the Grove,” along with the other regional winners, at Granta., RJS
TRENDING
The It Books of July 2026
Gather round as we peer into our crystal ball and assess the biggest new books month.
The ideal It Book rings four bells:
Zeitgeist, What’s the buzz?
Art, Is it good?
Acclaim, Will it contend for awards and best-of lists?
Sales, Where’s the money?
July’s contenders include a terrifying consideration of biological warfare, the conclusion of a crime trilogy from a National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, and a charming and zany fish-out-of-water novel.
Listen as we play a knock-out round to determine the It Book of July.
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AUDIOBOOKS
Libro.fm’s bestselling audiobook of June
Summer listening season is in full swing. Here are June’s top 5 best-selling audiobooks in fiction and non-fiction at independent bookstores, as reported by Libro.fm.
In fiction:
Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
Whistler by Ann Patchett
The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett
Land by Maggie O’Farrell
Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
In nonfiction:
Regime Change by Maggie Haberman & Jonathan Swan
The Land and Its People by David Sedaris
Strangers by Belle Burden
London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe
Famesick by Lena Dunham
I was also pleasantly surprised to see Communion by bell hooks hang on as the #9 best-selling nonfiction, as it was in May., JO
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UNAFRAID OF KITSCH, UNAFRAID OF SEX
Short stories for perverts
photo credit: Ryan Pfluger
When I think about stories I’d recommend for perverts, I think that they can, at their core, be about anything. That is, they don’t have to be sexual or transgressive, although they often are.
To me, they have to be audacious and fearless; they have to be self-assured and big-hearted. They are unconcerned with what you think. They are fearless in their pursuit of emotional truths, an energy which is, admittedly, highly erotic.
The New Narrative movement embodies a sort of perversity that I am fond of. In the introduction to the anthology Writers Who Love Too Much: New Narrative 1977-1997 edited by Dodie Bellamy and Kevin Killian, the editors write of the movement:
“It would be a writing prompted not by fiat nor consensus, nor by the totalizing suggestions of the MFA ‘program era,’ but by community; it would be unafraid of experiment, unafraid of kitsch, unafraid of sex and gossip and political debate.”
That is the energy that I am bringing to this recommendation list.
“Agatha Letters” by Camille Roy: As a prominent member of the New Narrative Movement, Roy is a must-read. “Agatha Letters,” the first story in her latest, Honey Mine, opens with the question: “Is it all point of view? Pleasure, I mean, the surprise in the dark. I suppose it’s different for everyone.” And then it shifts to third-person POV: “To Camille it felt empty and fresh, because she was.” The story, which is experimental in nature, is erotic and insightful, tragic and unafraid. And I fuck with the POV shifts as they relate to distortion, truth, and how we craft stories about ourselves.
“On the Boardwalk” by Robert Glück
“Boyfriend #666 / The Satanist” & “This Day and Many More” by Brontez Purnell
“Moon Over Denny-Blaine” by Max Delsohn
Find all of Mac Crane’s recommendations on Book Riot.
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Wisława Szymborska, born July 2, 1923
Did you know? Poet Wisława Szymborska, winner of the 1996 Nobel Prize for Literature, was a bestselling author in her native Poland, even as she only averaged about six published poems per year over her long career. Check out some of her poetry here.
CRITICAL LINKING
You are now free to roam about the internet
️‍ Find out why queer lit is booming.
Make America read again. Start with these Great American Novels.
易 Engage your brain with these thought-provoking comics.
Break all the rules with the author of year’s biggest surprise hit.
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END NOTES
Written by Rebecca Schinsky, Jeff O’Neal, and Danika Ellis. Thanks to Vanessa Diaz for copy editing.
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