In its email, as well as an attached, nearly 30-minute-long video, the organization cited “the funding woes that have threatened so many nonprofits” as a major factor behind its decision. That isn’t the only controversy the organization has faced in recent years, however. In 2024, it managed to piss off a large swath of the literary community by suggesting that condemnation of AI tools in writing circles had “classist and ableist undertones, and that questions around the use of AI tie to questions about privilege” in a since-deleted blog post. The organization attempted several times to amend and clarify its original statement, but the damage had been done. Prominent authors like Roxane Gay, Erin Morgenstern, and Silvia Moreno-Garcia condemned the stance on social media, while writers like Maureen Johnson and Daniel José Older resigned from the nonprofit’s board in protest. Around the same time, the organization also faced scrutiny over the moderation of its forums, which caused some concern for the safety of minors participating in the annual challenge as well as the community at large.
Of course, this doesn’t mean aspiring writers can’t challenge themselves to finish a novel in November or support each other through other community platforms—they’ll just have to do it without the assistance of NaNoWriMo’s word tracking software. “This is not the ending that anybody wanted or planned. And—believe us—if we could hit the delete button and rewrite this last chapter, we would,” the organization wrote in its email. “But we do have hope for the epilogue.” Maybe this one will be written without the help of AI.
