In this episode, we're celebrating "Hot Goss Summer" with our biggest haul of book-world nonsense yet. We wade into the polluted Oceans of PDF, and break down (loudly) why your arguments in favor of piracy sucks. We also cover the "Honey, I Slopped the Book" saga, where a small press's anthology pick turned out to have some very suspicious AI fingerprints, and a fanfic-plagiarism scandal that actually ends with a genuinely good apology, which, if you know Threads, you know is rare.

Plus, a heartfelt recommendation for anyone who wants to understand Marx without reading Marx because why not.

Welcome to Bad Lit Friends. We're glad you're here, even if none of us know what we're doing.

Bad Lit Friends was created and is hosted by Meagan Thompson-Mann and Kirk Rafferty.

Show email: [email protected]
Bluesky: @badlitfriends.bsky.social
Threads: @badlitfriends
Instagram: @badlitfriends
Website: https://www.badlitfriends.com/

Show Notes:

Queer Liberation Library: https://www.queerliberationlibrary.org/

Bona Books and the steampunk, anti-colonial fantasy that wasn’t written by a human: https://www.bona-books.com/news/we-bought-an-ai-story

Bona Books AI study: https://www.bona-books.com/news/the-machines-are-coming and https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ELIAJ0oVdStfn4qUt5N2-nmbokrpZneI/view

Jamir Nazir’s “The Serpent in the Grove” (which we discussed before) won the Commonwealth Foundation prize despite having mind-bogglingly clear markers of AI writing: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/jul/01/judges-claims-ai-use-commonwealth-short-story-prize-jamir-nazir 

Valley of the Moms controversypalooza: https://www.threads.com/@olivia.tildon/post/DaOzGBqGcJa

https://www.threads.com/@druishamericanprincess/post/DZ904BAkQFxJmsuUOlmNWc9EbPQl93_UWHu-1E0

https://www.tiktok.com/@ogbread.wifey/photo/7657483673670913293?image_index=5; https://www.threads.com/@rachelle_literary_agent/post/DaSlh4QDm2x

https://www.nycourts.gov/Reporter/3dseries/2015/2015_51161.htm

Stolen fanfic apology tour: https://www.threads.com/@andimcclanewrites/post/DaYMATYlnzW?xmt=AQG0Yd-LBesM-hy2jvCXG49grNZYQhNR6ZPbsMThTu8uSb1L39mIJEr81pajIfIGkQTHN23k&slof=1

https://www.threads.com/@redpenromance/post/DaYG7GIGxuQ