One winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize has been accused of being AI-generated. Online posts have noted that the AI checker Pangram rated “The Serpent in the Grove” by Jamir Nazir as 100 percent AI-created. Critics of AI detectors note that they are not always accurate; Pangram is among the more well-respected tools. The prize honors five unpublished short stories from the British Commonwealth of Nations. Granta published all five winning stories online. “Granta editors were not involved with these stories or their selection beyond copy-editing them upon receipt,” a spokesperson for the magazine said. “We are alarmed by the speculation that […]
Available Today: Buzz Books Fall/Winter 2026 Sampler
Today is pub day for the Buzz Books 2026: Fall/Winter season sampler, now available to download for free from Netgalley, Edelweiss, Bookshop.org (new!) and your eBook retailer of choice. Dive into 66 of Fall/Winter 2026’s shiniest releases, showcasing both established voices and emerging talents across Debut, Fiction, Nonfiction, and YA categories. The sampler presents a cornucopia of deluxe excerpts, with new work from Freida McFadden, Eric Idle, Wayétu Moore, Elizabeth Alexander, Chloe Benjamin, and many more. This is your chance to get ahead of the curve on the year’s best books. Please join us in building the buzz! Then, next […]
Forthcoming: A History of the Justice Department by Rachel Maddow
Crown will publish Rachel Maddow‘s next book, DEPARTMENT OF FATE: The Promise, the Power, and the Collapse of America’s Most Consequential Institution on November 10, directly after the midterm elections. The book is a history of the Justice Department, writes the publisher, tracing its “triumphs and misdeeds through the founding and rise of the KKK, the riotous chaos of the Red Scare, civil rights murders and violence, railroad barons’ crushing the unions, cabinet scandals that make Watergate look like Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, the faux erudite lawlessness of the Reagan Administration, and the collapse into thug rule in the Trump Administration.” […]
New Books Publishing May 19
This week’s fiction releases include new novels by Ali Smith, Ayelet Waldman, and Michael Connelly, while nonfiction includes work by Jesmyn Ward and Ada Ferrer. 39 works of fiction https://bookshop.org/lists/new-fiction-publishing-may-19 15 works of nonfiction https://bookshop.org/lists/new-nonfiction-publishing-may-19 Also publishing this week is a new novel by Jane Costello, excerpted in our Buzz Books 2026: Romance anthology. Watch her discuss her midlife romcom with her editor on our Authors and Editors panel here. We consult a number of sources in compiling our weekly lists and PM members can see our lists for the coming months on […]