TRINIDADIAN writer Jamir Nazir, the winner of the Caribbean category of the 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, has been accused of using AI for his winning story, 'The Serpent in the Grove'.

Trinidadian author and former Commonwealth Short Story Prize Overall Winner Kevin Jared Hosein, in a post yesterday, said the prize is 'dead', with the 'first blow' being Nazir's 'AI-alleged' short story, and the second the Commonwealth Foundation which supported the writer and the judges who selected his story.

Hosein said of the winning selection, 'the storytelling is quite poor, and none of his metaphor and simile serve the characters or the narrative'. He said while it was difficult to legally prove the use of AI tools, assisted writing 'lacks intentionality behind the strangeness it evokes as 'great' literature'.