Book Bytes: Sally Rooney’s UK boycott, AI suspicion haunts prizes, Meera goes to court

Book Bytes: Sally Rooney's UK boycott, AI suspicions in literary prizes, and a defamation case in Kerala.

Faber & Faber has halted supplying Irish author Sally Rooney's books in the UK following her decision to donate royalties to Palestine Action, a group designated as a terrorist organization by the UK government in July 2025. Rooney, known for her bestseller Normal People, has sold 2.3 million books in the UK. The dispute remains unresolved as the UK Supreme Court prepares to hear a challenge to the ban next month.

In a separate literary controversy, Zimbabwean author Simbarashe Kundizeza was accused of using artificial intelligence to write his winning story for the Caine Prize for African Writing. Kundizeza denies the allegations, stating that a machine-generated detection tool rated his work entirely as AI-generated. The prize board has launched an internal investigation.

Meanwhile, publishers are grappling with the use of AI technology. HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette reportedly utilize AI tools, like chatbots and image generators, in the creation of publicity materials and book covers. Employees have raised concerns about disclosing the use of such tools to authors. Literary agents are contemplating adding contract clauses to protect their clients' unpublished works.

In a separate development from Kerala, Malayalam novelists K R Meera and Haritha Savithri are embroiled in a legal battle over literary copyright. Meera has filed a criminal defamation complaint against Savithri, accusing her of plagiarism after alleging that Meera's novel Kalachi copied her own work, Zin, which won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award in 2023. The case will be heard by a court in Thrissur on November 7.