In spring 2026, Columbia Fiction Foundry Executive Committee adopted guidelines about the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in our writing workshops.

Any writing that you submit for a CFF workshop must be composed using your own words. No passage of any length can be generated by AI tools. The prose, scenes, characters, and narrative voice must come entirely from the writer.

So-called prompt authorship—where a writer assumes that an AI-generated response can be used in a submitted manuscript because the writer prompted that response—is not acceptable in CFF workshops under any circumstances.

Nor should any CFF member participating in the workshops ever use AI tools to critique the work of other participants. 

Although workshop participants can use generative AI for guidance and editing suggestions, this practice should be limited to the way a writer would consult The Elements of Style or some other writing guide—in other words, to learn the rule or best practice in any particular case. It is not acceptable to use generative AI to apply that rule and fix the issue in your writing.

CFF Executive Committee stresses that any use of generative AI outside of these guidelines by a participating member would be considered a very serious matter, the equivalent of plagiarism. 

These standards are in accordance with industry submission guidelines for most of the literary journals and literary agents that many of our members are actively pursuing. For further guidance please refer to the Authors Guild's AI Best Practices