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July 2, 2026 View Online | Join All Access | Listen

😎 Man, it’s a hot one. Stay hydrated, wear sunscreen, and don’t leave home without one of the best beach reads of all time .

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THE HEADLINE

Writer accused of AI use wins Commonwealth Prize

What a journey! Jamir Nazir, one of the three finalists for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize who were accused of using AI to create their work, has won the overall prize .

ICYMI :

Accusations began swirling online in May shortly after the Commonwealth Foundation announced the five regional winners who would go on to compete for the overall prize.

Readers, writers, and even an AI expert pointed to what they believed were “obvious markers of AI writing” in the nominated stories.

Citing concerns about “editorial integrity,” Granta Magazine, which has published the winning stories for more than a decade, ended its partnership with the Prize.

But! The Commonwealth Foundation cleared Nazir and his fellow finalists last week after a month-long investigation that, notably, did not incorporate AI-detection software.

Nazir , who has not commented on the allegations, discusses his inspiration and writing process in a short film released by the Commonwealth Foundation.

It’s just about impossible to prove a negative where AI is concerned.

The linguistic tics like em dashes and “not X, but Y” constructions that can indicate a work was AI-generated have their origins in the human-generated works large language models were trained on.

Showing your work with notes, drafts, and other documentation is about to become important for writers and could figure into future award selection processes.

🔍 See for yourself. You can read Nazir’s winning story, “The Serpent in the Grove,” along with the other regional winners, at Granta. — RJS

TRENDING

The It Books of July 2026

🔮 Gather round as we peer into our crystal ball and assess the biggest new books month.

The ideal It Book rings four bells:

🔔 Zeitgeist – What’s the buzz?

🔔 Art – Is it good?

🔔 Acclaim – Will it contend for awards and best-of lists?

🔔 Sales – Where’s the money?

July’s contenders include a terrifying consideration of biological warfare, the conclusion of a crime trilogy from a National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, and a charming and zany fish-out-of-water novel.

🎧 Listen as we play a knock-out round to determine the It Book of July.

TOGETHER WITH OUR QUEEREST SHELVES

Grow your TBR beyond Pride Month .

Our Queerest Shelves delivers a mix of new releases, themed best-of lists, and exclusive author interviews directly to your inbox. Whether you are looking for major new titles or niche indie gems, join thousands of fellow readers and subscribe to Our Queerest Shelves today.

LET ME UPGRADE YOU

Level-up your reading life

Book Riot All Access members get a pile of benefits, including unlimited reading on bookriot.com, recommendations for the Read Harder Challenge, and access to our Collections feature and the New Release Index to curate your TBR. Here are a few recent highlights:

🧑‍🍳 9 Must-Read Cookbooks to Liven Up Your Kitchen

💫 The Fantasy Backlist Titles at the Top of My TBR

🏳️‍🌈 Queer Chaos: Mystery & Thriller Edition

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🦸‍♂️ The Best New Graphic Novels for Kids Out This Year

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AUDIOBOOKS

Libro.fm’s bestselling audiobook of June

Summer listening season is in full swing. Here are June’s top 5 best-selling audiobooks in fiction and non-fiction at independent bookstores, as reported by Libro.fm .

In fiction:

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke

Whistler by Ann Patchett

The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett

Land by Maggie O’Farrell

Theo of Golden by Allen Levi

In nonfiction:

Regime Change by Maggie Haberman & Jonathan Swan

The Land and Its People by David Sedaris

Strangers by Belle Burden

London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe

Famesick by Lena Dunham

I was also pleasantly surprised to see Communion by bell hooks hang on as the #9 best-selling nonfiction, as it was in May. — JO

TOGETHER WITH AUDIOBOOKS.COM

Get your next three audiobooks completely free from Audiobooks.com .

Choose from over 500,000 titles, including Yesteryear , the viral debut novel everyone is talking about. Claim your three free audiobooks and start your 30-day trial today!

UNAFRAID OF KITSCH, UNAFRAID OF SEX

Short stories for perverts

photo credit: Ryan Pfluger

When I think about stories I’d recommend for perverts, I think that they can, at their core, be about anything. That is, they don’t have to be sexual or transgressive, although they often are.

To me, they have to be audacious and fearless; they have to be self-assured and big-hearted. They are unconcerned with what you think. They are fearless in their pursuit of emotional truths, an energy which is, admittedly, highly erotic.

The New Narrative movement embodies a sort of perversity that I am fond of. In the introduction to the anthology Writers Who Love Too Much: New Narrative 1977-1997 edited by Dodie Bellamy and Kevin Killian, the editors write of the movement:

“It would be a writing prompted not by fiat nor consensus, nor by the totalizing suggestions of the MFA ‘program era,’ but by community; it would be unafraid of experiment, unafraid of kitsch, unafraid of sex and gossip and political debate.”

That is the energy that I am bringing to this recommendation list.

“Agatha Letters” by Camille Roy: As a prominent member of the New Narrative Movement, Roy is a must-read. “Agatha Letters,” the first story in her latest, Honey Mine , opens with the question: “Is it all point of view? Pleasure, I mean—the surprise in the dark. I suppose it’s different for everyone.” And then it shifts to third-person POV: “To Camille it felt empty and fresh, because she was.” The story, which is experimental in nature, is erotic and insightful, tragic and unafraid. And I fuck with the POV shifts as they relate to distortion, truth, and how we craft stories about ourselves.

“On the Boardwalk” by Robert Glück

“Boyfriend #666 / The Satanist” & “This Day and Many More” by Brontez Purnell

“Moon Over Denny-Blaine” by Max Delsohn

👉 Find all of Mac Crane’s recommendations on Book Riot .

TOGETHER WITH CHECK YOUR SHELF

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Keeping up with the book world is a full-time job on top of your full-time job. Let Book Riot’s Check Your Shelf do the heavy lifting.

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Wisława Szymborska, born July 2, 1923

Did you know? Poet Wisława Szymborska, winner of the 1996 Nobel Prize for Literature, was a bestselling author in her native Poland, even as she only averaged about six published poems per year over her long career. Check out some of her poetry here .

CRITICAL LINKING

You are now free to roam about the internet

🏳️‍🌈 Find out why queer lit is booming.

🇺🇸 Make America read again. Start with these Great American Novels .

🧠 Engage your brain with these thought-provoking comics .

💛 Break all the rules with the author of year’s biggest surprise hit .

📫 Browse all of Book Riot’s newsletters for recommendations and book news by genre.

END NOTES

Written by Rebecca Schinsky, Jeff O’Neal, and Danika Ellis. Thanks to Vanessa Diaz for copy editing.

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Full text

A rescue spacecraft is speeding toward a NASA telescope to prevent it from falling into Earth's atmosphere.

The first-of-its-kind mission launched at 5:09 a.m. EDT (0908 GMT) Thursday (July 2) from the Marshall Islands, carrying a robot-arm spacecraft named Link into the sky aboard a modified Lockheed Martin L-1011 airliner. In midair, a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket launched Link into orbit, where it will eventually rendezvous with NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, a gamma-ray telescope that has been slowly falling toward Earth and headed for an untimely demise.

Link was developed by private company Katalyst Space for $30 million . Katalyst's goal is to meet up with the falling Swift Observatory, which launched in 2004, and pull it to a higher orbit, using Link's robotic arms and thrusters. Swift is still scientifically useful but is rapidly losing altitude due to the natural drag of Earth's atmosphere. Without help, Swift will likely meet its demise later this year, scientists say.

"This is a high-risk, high-reward mission," Shawn Domagal-Goldman , director of NASA's Astrophysics Division, said in a statement . "We have much to gain by attempting this boost, which is more affordable than trying to replace Swift's capabilities, and allows NASA to advance the nation's satellite servicing industry, for the benefit of all."

Swift cost $250 million in 2004, which is roughly $450 million today when accounting for inflation — a relatively cheap observatory compared with the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope . The Swift mission was originally designed to study gamma-ray bursts ‪—‬ cosmic explosions that occur when a massive, dying star collapses into a black hole. Swift has made many observations of these bursts in the past 20-plus years while also watching for other signs of stellar activity, like X-ray flares or supernova explosions, as well as transient objects, like comets and asteroids .

In sum, Swift helps us see how the universe is changing over short periods.

"Swift is NASA's multitool when it comes to studying the cosmos," S. Bradley Cenko , Swift's principal investigator and an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said in the statement. "It observes the sky using a wide range of light, and rapidly points at short-lived outbursts, alerting other facilities in space and on the ground to help coordinate follow-up observations."

Katalyst engineers attach Link to a baseplate inside the Space Environment Simulator at NASA Goddard on April 28, 2026. The team practiced firing the satellite’s ion thrusters and operated one of the robotic arms while they cycled through space-like temperatures. (Image credit: NASA/Sophia Roberts) High-risk rescue mission

The rescue mission comes with several challenges. Swift was not designed to be serviced when it launched, making the logistics of the mission something of a puzzle. Moreover, NASA only gave the contract to Katalyst in September, after high solar activity in recent years ballooned Earth's atmosphere and unexpectedly accelerated the spacecraft's fall due to increased drag. This meant the mission had to be ready for space in less than a year after the usual punishing requirements of design, build and testing.

Katalyst accepted the challenge because the company hopes to do this kind of work more often. "If we're going to build an enduring presence beyond Earth, we need the capability to manipulate our environment in space," Katalyst CEO Ghonhee Lee said in the statement. "That means deploying robotic spacecraft that can reposition, repair, refuel, and refit satellites after launch."

Unless Swift altered its operations plan, however, the spacecraft would have been irrecoverable in July. So, to give Link as much time as possible to rescue Swift, the operations team at Penn State's Eberly College of Science made some changes.

For example, Swift's science was minimized so that the spacecraft looks at targets only if the telescope is put in a "streamlined position" to minimize drag, NASA explained. Power consumption has also been slashed to let Swift's solar panels fly "in a more aerodynamic orientation," which also reduces the drag that is making the spacecraft fall into the atmosphere.

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Paperclip-sized spacecraft could visit a nearby black hole in the next century, study claims

These changes will allow Swift to stay above the minimum rescue altitude of 185 miles (298 kilometers) until autumn, agency models suggest. Katalyst will use that time to do the usual spacecraft "commissioning" on Link to make sure all systems are well. It will take Link about a month to rendezvous with Swift, according to NASA.

Following those steps, Link will approach Swift for evaluation, and Katalyst will use Link's robotic arms to latch onto the NASA observatory. Link will then use its propulsion system to gradually bring Swift's orbit to about 370 miles (595 km) ‪—‬ well above the pathway of the International Space Station, which orbits roughly 250 miles (400 km) over Earth.

NASA did not say how much longerSwift would be able to keep observing, should it reach its new altitude safely. However, figures from the European Space Agency suggest that spacecraft at an altitude of 310 miles (500 km) reenter the atmosphere within about 25 years. This would suggest that as long as Swift's instruments hold out, scientists would have many years of observations to look forward to.