Winners of Commonwealth Short Story Prize face accusations of using generative AI to write their entries.

One of five regional winners of the 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, Jamir Nazir of Trinidad and Tobago, had his Caribbean-region-winning story 'The Serpent in the Grove' flagged as 100 percent AI-generated by the AI-detection tool Pangram, a result WIRED independently confirmed. Researcher Nabeel S. Qureshi publicly noted the story's use of 'Not X, not Y, but Z' sentence structures and other markers he identified as typical of AI writing.

The Commonwealth Foundation awards the prize annually to one writer in each of five regions (Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe, the Caribbean, and the Pacific), with regional winners receiving £2,500 (about $3,350) and an overall winner to be announced next month receiving £5,000 (about $6,700). Entries are published by Granta magazine on its website, a practice in place since 2012.

The Commonwealth Foundation's director-general Razmi Farook stated the organization is 'aware of allegations and discussion regarding generative AI' and 'taking these claims seriously,' defending the judging process as 'robust' with multiple rounds of readers and judges selected for their expertise. Nazir did not respond to a request for comment.