AI-slop , GrantaGate and Bad Writing

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The article “AI-slop, GrantaGate and Bad Writing” by Tuhin Chakrabarty discusses concerns about the decline in writing quality, attributing part of the issue to the overreliance on AI-generated content and the controversy surrounding the GrantaGate incident. Chakrabarty emphasizes the importance of maintaining authentic, thoughtful writing in an era increasingly influenced by artificial intelligence.

https://tuhinchakrabarty.substack.com/p/ai-slop-grantagate-and-bad-writing

How Self-Published Authors Can Use Crowdfunding to Fund Their Next Book

Crowdfunding can be an effective way for authors with an existing audience to sell their books, offering various reward tiers from digital copies to deluxe signed editions. Successful campaigns, like Joanna Penn's travel memoir and Marcin Wichary's history of keyboards, demonstrate that crowdfunding provides early income and precise print runs, though it requires careful planning, audience building, and management of logistics and timelines.

https://www.literatureandlatte.com/blog/how-self-published-authors-can-use-crowdfunding-to-fund-their-next-book

The Privilege of Bad Writers

In “The privilege of bad writers,” Corey Robin discusses how certain types of bad writers on social media—droners, first-year grad student types obsessed with erudition, and confused word saladists—exhibit a form of privilege by being indifferent to their audience. Unlike thoughtful writers who engage readers as partners in dialogue, these bad writers fail to acknowledge or care about the human on the other end, which Robin identifies as a form of privilege distinct from commonly discussed social privileges.

https://coreyrobin.com/2026/05/15/the-privilege-of-bad-writers/?ref=thebrowser.com

The 10 Best AI Writing Tools I Recommend as a Pro Writer

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The article reviews and recommends the top 10 AI writing tools for creators, small business owners, and marketers, emphasizing their strengths and ideal use cases. It highlights tools like Buffer AI for social media content, Claude for structured and in-depth writing, Jasper for marketing teams, and others, noting that while AI aids in overcoming writer's block and generating ideas, human input remains essential for finalizing content.

https://buffer.com/resources/ai-writing-tools/

Artist Brittany V Wilder on Running a Poem Club

Brittany V Wilder is a visual artist and writer who runs Poem Club, a monthly project sending printed poems to thousands of members by mail, aiming to create tangible, personal connections through physical media rather than digital sharing. She balances her creative practice with the entrepreneurial demands of the project, which has grown into her full-time job, and plans to incorporate more visual art and pursue traditional poetry publication in the future.

https://stories.ulysses.app/artist-brittany-v-wilder-on-running-a-poem-club/

Stochastic Parrots 🦜: Frequently Unasked Questions

In this article, Emily M. Bender clarifies misconceptions about the term “stochastic parrots,” coined in her 2021 paper to describe large language models (LLMs) as systems that generate text by probabilistically remixing linguistic forms without true understanding or intent. She emphasizes that her critique targets the ethical and societal issues surrounding the development and deployment of these models—such as data use and environmental impact—rather than dismissing the models themselves or labeling all AI as stochastic parrots.

https://medium.com/@emilymenonbender/stochastic-parrots-frequently-unasked-questions-49c2e7d22d11

Comparisons as Predictable as the Sunrise

The article analyzes 200,000 “as ___ as ___” similes extracted from popular fiction, revealing patterns in how adjectives pair with nouns across literature. It finds that many adjectives have distinctive “fingerprints,” often dominated by cliché comparisons, while certain nouns serve as specialists (tightly linked to one adjective, e.g., “cucumber” for “cool”) or generalists (used with many adjectives, e.g., “hell”). The study also discusses ironic similes that subvert expected qualities for humor, highlighting the complex and predictable nature of figurative language in fiction.

https://pudding.cool/2026/05/similes/

Compile Multiple Timelines or Point-of-View Character Arcs in Your Scrivener Projects

Scrivener allows authors writing books with multiple timelines or point-of-view characters to organize their work by creating individual files for each scene or chapter and tagging them with labels for easy management. Writers can compile specific sections by timeline or character arc into single documents, such as PDFs or ePubs, facilitating consistency checks, revisions, and sharing with beta readers or agents. This feature is especially useful for complex manuscripts, enabling focused editing and seamless navigation of different narrative threads.

https://www.literatureandlatte.com/blog/compile-multiple-timelines-or-point-of-view-character-arcs-in-your-scrivener-projects

A Plea for Poetry in the Age of AI

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In “A plea for poetry in the age of AI,” Sophia Yvonne Hall argues that poetry is a vital form of human creativity that resists the homogenizing effects of AI, which tends to prioritize polished and formulaic outputs over originality and emotional depth. She urges readers to embrace the imperfect, messy, and uncertain nature of poetry as a way to preserve authentic creative expression that AI cannot replicate.

https://www.oxfordstudent.com/2026/05/10/a-plea-for-poetry-in-the-age-of-ai/

I Won’t Help Train AI – Word on Fire

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In the article “I Won’t Help Train AI,” Christopher Hazell shares his personal decision to decline a lucrative opportunity to train AI in creating narrative art such as fiction and scripts. He argues that while AI can assist with mundane tasks, the creation of authentic art requires human experience, free will, and the capacity for sacrificial love, which AI cannot replicate; thus, embracing AI-generated art risks dehumanizing culture by replacing genuine human communion with simulations.

https://www.wordonfire.org/articles/i-wont-help-train-ai/

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