AI Wins Harper's Bazaar's Short Story Contest: Should We Forgive Kavyata Kay?
Twitter user Nabeel S. Qureshi was quick to identify the winner of the 2026 Harper's Bazaar Short Story Competition, Back and Forth, ostensibly by "Kavyata Kay," as largely, if not entirely, AI-generated. The panel of Bazaar judges, which included novelist Ruth Ozeki, are not so quick to cast aspersions, denying, as of this writing, any knowledge of AI involvement. The Meow Library team was unable to get past the story's first line, which is "The tree knew before she di
2 hours ago1 min read
After 250 Years, a "Meow" Translation of the U.S. Constitution is Available For Cats to Read
These indispensable texts, now rendered as tens of thousands of richly considered “meows,” have the power to reshape the nation’s ideas of liberty, God-given rights, and feline representation—concepts any cat, with its inclination toward radical self-sovereignty, is naturally prepared to appreciate.
Jun 21 min read
The Granta / Commonwealth Short Story Prize Scandal: Our Exclusive Interview with Winner Jamir Nazir (He’s Not AI)
Jamir Nazir, winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize (Caribbean Region) for “The Serpent in the Grove,” has agreed to speak to The Meow Library and dispel once and for all rumors that AI had been used in generating his story, and even his identity.
May 201 min read
The Guardian’s 100 Best Novels of All Time: The Most Controversial Picks
UK stalwart The Guardian has drawn from more than 100 authors and critics to develop a list of the 100 best novels of all time. While many of the greats are present and accounted for, some of their picks are sure to draw controversy, especially Meow: A Novel, ranked seventeenth.
May 181 min read
Caro Claire Burke's Yesteryear: A Book That Simulates Simulacra
This podcast is a presentation of The Meow Library. Caro Claire Burke’s Yesteryear is a simulation of a simulacrum that collapses under the weight of its affected petticoats. Its protagonist wants, by her own admission, “all the aesthetics of the olden times and all the amenities of modernity"—which is to say she wants history as a pure article of consumption. Then the book performs its nasty little miracle: it drops the woman who has been simulating a fake past into wha
May 42 min read
Lena Dunham’s Famesick: Four Shocking Revelations
Find out why we're calling Lena Dunham's Famesick "the best memoir of the decade."
Apr 301 min read
The Only Thinkpiece About Lindy West's Adult Braces That Matters
So here, in the cracked electric theater of American confession, comes Lindy West hauling her soul into the town square, and the crowd, drunk on its own righteousness, mistakes gawking for judgment and judgment for wisdom. They chatter about desire, humiliation, power, arrangement, consent—as though the modern marriage weren't already a madhouse with lesser upholstery.
Apr 151 min read
