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  "path": "/the-written-word-is-having-a-rough-week",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-19T17:51:18.000Z",
  "site": "https://defector.com",
  "tags": [
    "Defector Reads A Book",
    "The Machines",
    "ai",
    "frauds",
    "granta",
    "llms",
    "olga tokarczuk",
    "the human spirit",
    "white people with dreads",
    "announced the five regional winners",
    "The Serpent In The Grove",
    "pointed this out",
    "2018 poetry book",
    "AI-fueled turn on LinkedIn",
    "told The Bookseller",
    "also turned"
  ],
  "textContent": "Late last week, the Commonwealth Foundation announced the five regional winners of its 2026 Short Story Prize. The quintet will move on to a final round of judging ahead of the grand prize announcement on June 30, though we can probably count out Caribbean regional winner Jamir Nazir. It seems Nazir's \"The Serpent In The Grove,\" published last Tuesday in _Granta_ , was written by a large-language model.\n\nOn Monday, Wharton associate professor Ethan Mollick pointed this out, noting in the process that the AI-checker he used tends toward false negatives more than false positives. Nazir's online footprint is small: a self-published 2018 poetry book called _Night Moon Love: Poems For All Who Have Loved Or Dreamed Of Love_ and a prolific, AI-fueled turn on LinkedIn as an AI evangelist. The Commonwealth Foundation told The Bookseller they are \"conducting a thorough, transparent review of the selection process.\"\n\nA _Granta_ spokesperson, meanwhile, said that they simply copy-edit the stories selected by the Foundation—this one includes the lines \"She had the kind of walking that made benches become men,\" and \"The girl smiled like sunrise over a sink,\" raising the intriguing possibility that \"The Serpent in the Grove\" won an award and got published in a prestigious literary magazine without anyone ever actually reading any part of it—that they were \"alarmed by the speculation,\" and would keep the story up until the review is complete. _Granta_ publisher Sigrid Rausing also turned to Anthropic LLM Claude for some help analyzing the story, and quoted Claude at length in her statement, in case anyone was feeling sympathetic toward the magazine. Nobody could get in touch with Nazir, who appears to be a real guy with a fake profile picture.",
  "title": "The Written Word Is Having A Rough Week"
}