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Novelist accused of using AI to write book removed from French prize list

The organisers of France’s most prestigious literary prize said they had removed a critically acclaimed novel by a Canadian-Haitian writer from the longlist after an anonymous online account claimed the book was “almost entirely” written by AI. The Académie Goncourt, a Paris-based literary organisation, said on Friday its decision to withdraw Thélyson Orélien’s novel C’était ça ou mourir (It Was That or Die) was “driven by the desire to preserve the integrity of the Goncourt prize and the academy itself, whose c…

By the Truvace desk2 min read1 sourceJournalismTRV-2026-1184· cite & verify
Novelist accused of using AI to write book removed from French prize list

In brief

The organisers of France’s most prestigious literary prize said they had removed a critically acclaimed novel by a Canadian-Haitian writer from the longlist after an anonymous online account claimed the book was “almost entirely” written by AI. The Académie Goncourt, a Paris-based literary organisation, said on Friday its decision to withdraw Thélyson Orélien’s novel C’était ça ou mourir (It Was That or Die) was “driven by the desire to preserve the integrity of the Goncourt prize and the academy itself, whose central role is to promote and honour literature written by women and men”.

Allegations that the book was written using AI emerged on X on 21 September, the same day It Was That or Die won the Fnac prize for best novel. An anonymous account called Balance ton Claude, a reference to Anthropic’s AI agent, said it had fed the novel into the AI detection software Pangram and found it to be “almost entirely” written by artificial intelligence.

Main points

  1. The organisers of France’s most prestigious literary prize said they had removed a critically acclaimed novel by a Canadian-Haitian writer from the longlist after an anonymous online account claimed the book was “almost entirely” written by AI.
  2. The Académie Goncourt, a Paris-based literary organisation, said on Friday its decision to withdraw Thélyson Orélien’s novel C’était ça ou mourir (It Was That or Die) was “driven by the desire to preserve the integrity of the Goncourt prize and the academy itself, whose central role is to promote and honour literature written by women and men”.
  3. The Haiti-born author’s book is a lyrical first-person account of how a history and geography teacher flees a home country mired in gang violence and embarks on a perilous journey across 12 countries before finding a haven in Canada.

The gain

Questions have been raised over Pangram’s accuracy, and French media outlets have found other AI detection programmes that identified It Was That or Die as very probably written by a human.

The rundown

The Haiti-born author’s book is a lyrical first-person account of how a history and geography teacher flees a home country mired in gang violence and embarks on a perilous journey across 12 countries before finding a haven in Canada. Published in France by Grasset in August, it has sold about 35,000 copies and won the Prix du roman Fnac, with translation rights sold to more than 20 countries.

Sources

  1. JournalismThe Guardian2026-09-25

The debate