What a week yesterday was, as several controversies over AI use in book publishing emerged. During the Poznań Impact event in Poland, Nobel laureate in literature Olga Tokarczuk said that she used AI while working on her next novel, as reported by My Company Polska. Tokarczuk said that she asked an LLM what songs her characters might have danced to in the past. She also expressed support for the technology as a useful tool for writers. “I often throw an idea to the machine for analysis, asking, ‘Honey, how could we develop this beautifully?’,” she said. “Even though I know […]
Controversies
Commonwealth Foundation and Granta Stand By Short Story After AI Accusations
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 The prize honors five unpublished short stories from the British Commonwealth of Nations.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 […]
Mac Barnett Responds To Backlash
Children’s author and National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Mac Barnett has responded to the online controversy caused by an excerpt from his recently published book for adults Make Believe: On Telling Stories to Children. He writes in the book, “I have a nagging fear that children’s literature suffers from a slightly higher crud percentage than literature as a whole…maybe more like 94.7 percent of kids’ books are crud.” Since the book was published on Tuesday, authors and readers in the kidlit community have compared him to pro-book banning organizations and called for him to resign from his ambassadorship. Author […]
Harper UK Drops David Walliams Following Allegations, Investigation in 2024
Harper Collins UK has decided not to publish any more books by bestselling children’s author David Walliams, the Telegraph reports, apparently in reaction to an investigation by the newspaper. The Telegraph says its efforts began following “allegations of inappropriate behavior by Walliams last year.” The company launched its own investigation into Walliams last year after claims that he had “harassed” junior female staff at the publisher. “After careful consideration, and under the leadership of its new CEO, HarperCollins UK has decided not to publish any new titles by David Walliams. The author is aware of this decision,” a Harper UK […]
Publisher Condemns Hegseth’s Children’s Book Appropriation
Kids Can Press, the Canadian children’s publisher of the Franklin the Turtle series, responded to a social media post from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth that depicted the turtle shooting at drug boats. On Sunday, Hegseth posted an image on his personal X account that appropriates the popular Franklin the Turtle book series by Paulette Bourgeois. Hegseth’s image looks like the cover of “A Classic Franklin Story” with the title “Franklin the Turtle Targets Narco Terrorists” and an illustrated image of Franklin shooting at boats with a bazooka. The post has the caption, “For your Christmas wish list…” On Monday, […]
Penguin Says It Did Its Due Diligence On ‘The Salt Path’
Further to Monday’s story about fraud accusations against Raynor Winn’s bestselling memoir The Salt Path, Penguin commented that they undertook “all the necessary pre-publication due diligence.” They also said they had not received “any concerns about the book’s content” before The Observer investigation. The Observer piece alleges that the book contains substantial fabrication, and omits that Winn embezzled from her employer and was involved in a fraudulent money raising scheme, among many other accusations. The publisher’s full statement to BBC News reads: “Penguin (Michael Joseph) published the Salt Path in 2018 and, like many readers, we were moved and inspired […]