The Written Word Is Having A Rough Week | Defector

"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. On 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.""

"A 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 Rausig 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."

Five regional winners were named for a 2026 short story prize, with a final judging round scheduled before a June 30 grand prize announcement. Jamir Nazir’s story, published in Granta, was alleged to be written by a large-language model. An academic used an AI-checker and noted it can produce more false negatives than false positives. Nazir’s public record appears limited, including a self-published poetry book and AI-focused LinkedIn activity. The Commonwealth Foundation stated it is conducting a thorough, transparent review. Granta said it copy-edits stories selected by the Foundation, expressed alarm at speculation, and said it would keep the story online until review completion. The publisher also used an LLM for analysis and quoted it in a statement.

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