Posted October 21, 2026 4:24 pm.
Les Éditions du Boréal announced Wednesday that they are ending their collaboration with Quebec writer of Haitian origin Thélyson Orélien, after detecting artificial intelligence (AI) in his novel “C’était ça ou mourir”.
The publisher claims that “new evidence” has shown the use of AI in the book’s writing process.
“The author had assured us, on several occasions, that he had never used it in the creation of his novel. Consequently, Boréal will not reprint the novel and will not publish any other books by Thélyson Orélien,” the publishing house said in a statement.
The publisher explains that it has “gathered all the working versions of the novel and commissioned a thorough external analysis” after the end of an initiative by Orélien aimed at refuting the allegations against him.
“The results obtained this week revealed traces of AI tags in the metadata of some documents,” the publisher said.
Boréal still doesn’t know “to what extent AI was used in the creation” of the novel, “and we will probably never have a definitive answer in this regard,” he added.
Thélyson Orélien has maintained in recent days that no sentence in his novel was generated by a machine.
“This claim has now been refuted,” the publisher stated on Wednesday. “Under these circumstances, we cannot continue our professional collaboration.”
In September, the publishing house revealed that it was collaborating with Orélien to compile a file documenting his creative process to demonstrate his innocence.
The publisher mentioned on Wednesday that “these steps have not made it possible to settle the question of the use of AI” in “It was this or die”, while Orélien announced last week that he was giving up on gathering evidence to support his denial.
Boréal has denied siding with the writer in the wake of the controversy that erupted last month. The publisher maintains that it “preferred caution to haste in the face of an unprecedented and evolving situation, which caught us off guard, and for which there is no instruction manual.”
“We had to act with the information we had and take into consideration several legal, ethical, editorial and human factors in our decisions. We knew that these decisions would have long-term consequences for the operation of Boréal, for our fellow publishers and for the book industry in general,” the publisher said.
Éditions Boréal mentions that they chose this novel “because it deeply moved us, long before its success in bookstores and its awards.”
Boréal now wishes to take part “actively in the collective reflection that is needed regarding the place of AI in literature”.
The publisher states that it has informed Orélien of its decision. It calls on the public “to exercise restraint so that personal attacks against him cease,” reminding them that “above all, there is a human being” behind this controversy.
The author denied using AI to write the novel, claiming to have started working on it in 2017 and completed a first draft of over 300 pages in 2019.
This controversy had other consequences. The novel was removed from the shortlist for the prestigious Goncourt Prize following allegations of AI use and other accusations of plagiarism concerning Orélien’s earlier works.
He also faced accusations of plagiarism. The writer admitted to having committed such acts in some of his earlier works, apologizing for what he called unacceptable mistakes made in his youth.
— With information from Charlotte Glorieux
