Deutsche Welle at the Frankfurt Book Fair: Can You Be an Author with AI?
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This October, Deutsche Welle covered the fight that took over the 2026 Frankfurt Book Fair: if a book is written with AI, who's the author? Sabine Kieselbach from DW's culture desk interviewed me for the article and the video.
The question everyone in Frankfurt was asking can an author write with AI
DW opened with the story of Thélyson Orélien. His debut novel about migration was acclaimed, sold translation rights in more than twenty languages, and made the long list for the Prix Goncourt. Then came the allegation that it was written almost entirely with AI. He denies it. The Goncourt nomination was withdrawn anyway.
So DW asked the question nobody can answer cleanly yet: who do you believe, the author or the software that says it caught him?
What I told them
DW put the question to me straight: can anyone become an author with AI?
I'm dyslexic. I've always written and made up stories, but I never dared to take them any further. AI is what got me over that line. It pointed out the weak spots in my writing. It suggested a marketing strategy that actually worked. And I said so, out loud, the whole way through. My memoir, How to Win One Million Dollars and Shit Glitter, won a 2026 IBPA
Benjamin Franklin Award.
I also told DW I think the whole debate is hypocritical. Publishers have been using AI tools for a while. And I made a prediction: right now, a million-copy bestseller is being printed that was made with the help of AI. The author won't admit it, and then there'll be a scandal.
DW ended on that line. They wrote that the Orélien story might be exactly that scandal, and that we may never know for sure.
Who else was in the room
I was in good company, and not all of it agreed with me. Hannes Bajohr, a literature professor at Berkeley, said we'll have to learn to live with doubt and judge books on their quality. Nina George, honorary president of the European Writers' Council, called it perverse that a writer should suddenly have to prove they're human. Coral Hart, a South African author, publishes more than 200 novels a year with AI as the base of her business.
Four very different answers to the same question. Mine is the one I've lived: the stories were always mine. The machine just got them onto the page.
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