Culture || The Curse of High Pangram Scores: The 2026 Caine Prize AI Scandal v The Inaugural Almadia-Ventosa Arrufat International Short Novel Prize
Hate me for it. One thing policing taught me was to deal with incidents with a clinical detachment. I wish more attention was paid by investigative journalists to European writing competitions not just to ones targeting ethnic minorities. Nevertheless, we must listen to accusations about synthetic writing winning prizes. I was pleased that The Board of Trustees of the Caine Prize for African Writing conducted a review, which opened on 11 October 2026 after Vauhini Vara’s write-up. Their conclusion was that their original prizewinning story stood.
And are Only Black writers publicly shamed? No. It might appear so to some observers. I can list numerous ethnic authors who’ve won prestigious prizes since 2019 and whose works have not been torn apart by so-called AI witch hunters. Though I must admit, Twitter racists seemed to have jumped on the moral bandwagon to defome writers of African origin; a fraction of writers have been ‘Pangrammed’ on Twitter/X. We must ignore detractors.
Allegations by a Journalist with El Pais Newspaper
You may not have heard of the 1st Almadía-Ventosa Arrufat Short Novel Prize and a Panagram Analysis of the Twenty Thousand Euros Prizewinning Story which rated the story as 99% AI-generated, this October. The winner takes home a €20,000 ($22,000) award in addition to an advance for royalties.
On October 23, 2026, the prize organisers posted this public notice on their Instagram page in Spanish. I have used Google Translate to produce an English version:
To our readers: Publishing a book entails a relationship of trust between the writer, the editor, and the reader. This trust is the foundation upon which Almadía is built; therefore, it is our responsibility to uphold the commitments that make this trust possible.
Since yesterday, we have received comments suggesting the potential use of generative artificial intelligence in the writing of the novel that won the 1st Almadía-Ventosa Arrufat Short Novel Prize.
This situation is unsettling and raises questions that we are taking very seriously. From the moment the call for submissions was announced, the rules and protocols for the prize explicitly prohibited the use of artificial intelligence in the creation of the works. In addition to signing a contractual declaration stating that such tools were not used, the author also provided personal assurance to this effect, and we have no reason to doubt their word. Throughout the process of reading the novel, neither the jury nor our editorial team detected any signs that generative AI had been employed.
We approached the work as a whole, focusing on its voice, its structure, and the meanings it evokes. Our perspective draws upon experience, sensitivity, and interpretation—dimensions we consider essential to the encounter with literature.
Outcome
Because the competition rules strictly banned AI, the publisher Editorial Almadia immediately suspended Silva Rojas’s promotional book tour in Spain and opened an investigation. The verdict: Silva Rojas denied using AI to write and submitted drafts and material s documenting his creative process. Working alongside technologists, lawyers and linguistic experts, the publisher and the Soiedad Ventosa Arrufat concluded that AI detector scores aren’t reliable proof of a lack of human-authorship.
The Caine Prize Review concluded along similar lines. Link:Press — The Caine Prize for African Writing
What Does UK Law Say about the Admissibility of AI-Detection Score Results in Courts?
AI detection scores can be used as evidence in UK courts, but their admissibility is subject to specific conditions. The key considerations are:
Reliability and Authenticity: Courts must demonstrate that the AI-generated evidence is reliable, authentic, and has been produced in accordance with the required evidential standard.
Verification: AI-generated evidence must be independently verified before use, as AI tools may produce incorrect or misleading information
Albeit, due to socioeconomic inequalities many creatives and readers in Africa are not familiar with chatbot language. Again, some are in denial that generative-AI is so widely used by creative writers. The enablers call it racist to query whether an ESL writer has used an LLM to a Substack post for instance.
I know African readers are livid over The Atlantic investigation into the 2026 prizewinning story. My interest in reviewing this story is to help maintain public trust in what I publish — mostly writing by African creatives. A large percentile of Penned in Rage’s readership comes from the UK; they/you might’ve read a BBC article in October 2026 about the Caine Prize AI allegations. Let me say that over a megaphone: our writers produce original material.
I'm afraid the Caine Prizewinner’s Name is MUD. I feel sorry for the implicated writer.
Over the past few days, I’ve logged on using aliases to various social media platforms. (My old job taught me how to infiltrate forums convincingly. I used to do that for information-gathering.)
What I’ve discovered:
Most commenters on social media do not believe the Caine Prize winner didn’t at least use an app to generate a storyline or beef up sections of his story. The writer’s dad allegedly had a failing tomato business so did he Google the bits about a fish? How did he do his research? An American profile on Reddit, claiming to be an Editor has apparently run the winning story though other apps and they too yielded positive results.
Every account in The Blue Fighter story aligned perfectly,” posted yatharth @AskYat: oh my god the original story is so bad and has such an Al smell too
The mother's response to losing the house is described as "Not with anger, but with the quiet resignation..."
The family's new social status is "Not quite poor enough..." followed by the contrasting loss of their former wealth.
The narrator's final assessment is "Not broken, just learning how to live differently.
The prose also repeatedly makes abstract emotional conclusions explicit rather than trusting the events to convey them. For example, after the fish are sold, the narration explains that the dying fish symbolize the family's decline. That interpretation seems unnecessary given everything we've just witnessed.
Some commenters are sympathetic and not RACIST at all. They blame The Atlantic journalist for going public with her allegations before the Caine Prize investigation.
An Analysis of the Metaphorical Blue Fighter Story
Copyrighted Material Used for Evidential Purposes
I don't care who or what wrote 'The Blue Fighter.' I'm not bothered. I dislike fake metaphor-laden narratives. I prefer the ardent storytelling style of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie which makes us care for the/her characters than a piece where everything is working towards advancing the metaphor, even the acrylic and walls in The ‘Blue Fighter.’ The apathetical African dad and devoted mum stereotypes are so past their sell-by date. Mubanga Kalimamukwento’s depictions in The Mourning Bird are far superior to those in Simbarashe Kundizeza’s fish-image story. I don't want to read stories that preach to me or put Africans in a box.
Please see below for link to the 2026 Caine Winner’s story.
Total Number of Words: 3, 590
[For comparative purposes ‘The Whistleblower‘ is an earlier story by the same author:
The story's title 'Blue Fighter' is a highly overused, clichéd and generic one. There're millions of posts about Bluey or the Betta Fighter Fish online. It borrows from an overused trope in action, sci-fi and a classic comic (please Google Blue Fighter; set your search boundaries to before 2024). Here it refers to an exotic fish, however.
The idea of a Dad spending all his or the family’s money on Exotic Goldfish is actually a surprisingly common and highly specific trope across relationship and aquarium forums on Reddit. OpenAI even suggested a story concept about a dad keeping goldfish to me when I was doing my research. The family's power was also cut off. I am not saying Simbarashe Steyn Kundizeza’s story came from there. He has reportedly produced drafts to the Caine Prize investigators.
Nonetheless, 'The Blue Fighter' story must’ve taken this gentleman ages to write.
Why?
1. Deliberate restriction of syntax to create an alliterative pattern
2. Making sure every action carries a metaphorical interpretation
3. Systematic reuse of certain words to create new sentences
The location of this story is Harare though. The Caine Prize-winning short fiction piece by Zimbabwean author Simbarashe Kundizeza draws its plot from a South African poet’s unpublished piece about a man’s interest in fish tanks. I wasn't sure whether or not, Simbarashe Kundizeza’s family actually kept goldfish. Now the author's dad ran a failed tomato business. The “goldfish” connection is purely metaphorical, tied to the story’s plot, not a real product. As an imagined scenario then it makes it easier for the template or sections of the plot, to have come from anywhere.
Sections of ‘The Blue Fighter’ story sound too generic. We aren’t told which year the events take place nor are we given Father, Mother or Tinashe’s ages. There isn’t much physical description of the protagonists. Mum has a thin face. We are told about their shoulder postures, eye movements and sound of their voice/s. Why repeat references to certain physical aspects and not introduce new ones? What does Tinashe look like? But we are given timeframe with the similar adjective phrases: three years; three weeks; third day.
Two different registers seem to run through the story and upon my twelfth reading I even spotted a mistake: in ‘I already spoke to him,’ said by the Mother, the present perfect tense might’ve sounded better: I’ve already spoken to him. The story wraps up too nicely with a moral lesson from nature (the Blue Fighter fish). I’m highly suspicious of these sorts of moralistic tales.
Later, as I lay in bed, I heard the soft hum of the filter and the rhythmic splash of water against glass. I imagined the fish circling in the blue light, a lone survivor in a shrinking world. And I thought, maybe that was us, too. Not broken, just learning how to live differently. Alone, sometimes. But still moving. Still here.
There’s foreshadowing with an earlier mention of the colour blue. The Blue fighter is used by Tinashe ‘s Father to make an allegory with the Ngoni tribe: these fish fight when you put them in the same tank with others.
Clichéd phrases found in plot which good writers are told to avoid like a second skin; eyes, though tired…; carrying the weight of (years). At times the story uses words for the sake of creating alliterations only and not to add meaning or enhance storytelling.
I spotted a contradiction. In one sentence, the writer says: making the walls seem both cleaner and more obviously stained. In another: ‘The walls were thin enough’… In that paragraph we are also told that the 'walls…sweated during the rainy season.' Yet two paragraphs down the writer claims: ‘he positioned them along the only intact wall …’
What’s up with these walls? Such poor editing. Even enough occurs in close sequence too many times.
There is a sentence reshuffling pattern/re-use of content words.
"Human texts exhibit more scattered sentence length distributions, more variety of vocabulary, a distinct use of dependency and constituent types, shorter constituents, and more optimized dependency distances."
Source - Muñoz-Ortiz, A., Gómez-Rodríguez, C. & Vilares, D. Contrasting Linguistic Patterns in Human and LLM-Generated News Text. Artif Intell Rev 57, 265 (2024).
Sentence Reshuffling Pattern
a. The | sharp | edges | of | her | cheekbones | softened
b. Mother's | laugh| was | sharp | enough | to | cut | glass
Based on parts of these sentences: Mother’s | sharp | glass | we have:
c. 'Mother's face grew thinner, her cheekbones sharp as glass'
The number of times some words are used has a consistent match: dollars, empty, filters, plastic, walls = x5. Same word used as different word class: import - imported; or used in a different verb tense: fill- filled. Glass and silence = x7
On occasions, if a word is used as part of a descriptive phrase, it came back as part of a comparative phrase. The same core words and structure recur with changed subjects and word order.
In seven consecutive paragraphs, the writer repeats these words: one, new, half, sweat/ed; walls.
After the first thirty sentences, the story begins repeating words/phrases.
The story has over 32 alliterative patterns. It would require a lot of focus on the minutiae to fit in so much alliteration. Paragraph one has six sentences.
P alliterative words = 4
F alliterative words = 2
M alliterative words = 7
S alliterative words = 8
C alliterative words = 2
Each image ties in nicely with the overall narrative about an African father wasting money on a startup fish/aquarium business. There's too much foregrounding of the images of 'water' and 'fish' in 'Blue Fighter.' The writer appears to use a narrative numerical progression, repetition, alliteration and reinforces points through images. Perhaps a critic might say it’s too technically perfect.
I want my brain to do some work, not be told what should be subtext. The Caine winning story is too easy a read. It hardly makes use of white space, except to delineate paragraphs.
Mirroring: the aquarium becomes a microcosm of the Zimbabwean protagonist’s life. There’s a duality that runs throughout the story like it has to be picture perfect.
I was distracted by the repetition of the ‘s’ sound/voiceless alveolar sibilant as if a pointer to the sea, silence or suffering? There were approximately 190 words in the short story beginning with an s. There are approximately 190 /s/ words. Not this but (❌ used plus plus). The phrase “faster than” appears three times. The phrase “more than” appears three times in the story. Walls (❌ used plus plus). Rhythm (❌ used plus plus)
Towards the end of his short fiction, the writer ruins it for me by TELLING me he’s a fish in the wrong tank.
Many → one: The story begins with many fish and tanks, then the tanks are dismantled “one by one,” and it ends with one tank and one blue fish.
Four → two: Their new home has two bedrooms instead of four, numerically showing that their living space has been halved.
Repeated “one”: The word becomes especially concentrated after the move: “smallest tank first. Just one,” “this one,” “the smallest tank,” “a single blue fish,” “that one,” “one dream,” and “You kept one.”
Three-part escalation: Several events occur in threes: the mother counts the money twice, then a third time; the father returns on the third day; and “when they breed” is repeated before the mother says it has been three years.
Reduction in ending rhythm: The final sentences become numerically and grammatically smaller.
However, I wish to congratulate Mr Simbarashe Kundizeza; a panel of well-meaning judges chose his story from a pile of hundreds of others to represent the African continent. The Caine Prize has revisited and tightened their AI policy too.
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