Tag: literature

Crossing the AI Rubicon

What one top literary magazine’s award to a (likely) AI-generated story means for the literary world

In 49 BCE, following a seven-year campaign to expand the Roman Empire into Gaul (much of Western Europe), Junius Caesar, then a general of the Roman army, approached a river that signified an important boundary between Rome and the rest of the world. According to Roman law, if anyone crossed that river–the Rubicon–it would be considered an act of war.

As we know from history, Caesar crossed that line, uttering the words alea iacta est (“the die is cast”), a phrase that has come to mean, “no turning back.”

Earlier this week, a prestigious literary magazine, Granta, crossed a metaphorical Rubicon of its own when it published a prize-winning short story that, evidence strongly suggests, was written not by a human, but by artificial intelligence.

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What makes fiction literary?

How do we define a style that many see as elitist, pretentious, and irrelevant?

What does the term “literary fiction” mean? What makes a story or essay or novel literary instead of … something else?

That’s a question I’ve been pondering for some time now. Lately, a series of pieces appearing online have attempted to get at an answer.

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How do we make reading fun again?

Reading for pleasure is down. What’s a writer to do?

As a kid growing up in the ’60s and ’70s, I remember public service announcements interrupting my Saturday-morning cartoon time to tell me about an organization called Reading Is Fundamental. RIF is still around, and still working to promote literary among children in the U.S., but judging from a recent study of American’s reading habits, fewer people in this country are reading for pleasure than they were two decades ago.

A PSA for Reading Is Fundamental

According to this study, “reading for pleasure in the United States has declined by more than 40% over the last 20 years–raising urgent questions about the cultural, educational and health consequences of a nation reading less.”

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New (and free) ‘Live and Let DEI’ anthology turns banned words into poetry

Image of the cover for the poetry anthology 'Live and Let DEI: Poems That6 Draw on the U.S. Government's New "Forbidden Words"'

When the world and everything in it becomes toxic and chaotic, I often turn to works of poetry for solace and insight. And it’s during such times that poets often rise to the challenges of taking a stand against the ascent of totalitarianism and fascism. They emerge as a culture’s moral compass, as prophets and advocates for change, for reformation, for revolution, and it’s important that these voices have a space to be shared.

Last April, Winning Writers launched a project to provide such a space. The website issued a call for poetry that incorporated words and phrases the U.S. government has banned for a new anthology that was published earlier this week. You can download a PDF of the anthology, Live and Let DEI: Poems That Draw on the U.S. Government’s New ‘Forbidden Words’, free of charge.

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May LitLinks

Some inspiration for writers on archetypes, writing faster/quiet/dangerously, and taking breaks

Welcome to the second edition of LitLinks, a collection of links of potential interest to other writers. Check them out below, or if you prefer, listen to the AI-generated summary here or below.)

AI-generated image