The Serpent in the Grove | Jamir Nazir | Granta
The 2026 selection of the regional winners of the Commonwealth Prize caused a great deal of controversy, based on the speculation that one or more of the stories may have been at least partially AI-generated, accusations that were strongly rejected by the authors. Granta editors were not involved in the Commonwealth regional prize juries or the selection of authors for their shortlists. For the sake of our own editorial integrity, the Granta Trust board has now taken the decision that we will no longer engage in external publishing partnerships where we have no editorial control. We will keep the Commonwealth Prize shortlisted stories on our website in the public interest, and wish our former partner, the Commonwealth Foundation, all the best in its work. Jamir Nazir’s story is the winning entry from the Caribbean in the 2026 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. They say the grove still hums at noon. Not the bees’ neat industry or the clean rasp of cutlass on vine, but a belly sound – as if