The Centaur Collection
The Centaur Collection publishes literary works co-written by a human author and a named language model. Both names on the cover. The process documented. The work protected by copyright.
Em Dash is opening a call for texts for the first title in this collection.
CALL FOR TEXTS — The Centaur Collection
The first novel co-written openly by a human and an LLM, both names on the cover.
Who we are
Em Dash is a literary project founded in 2025 that explores literature written by and with large language models. Our experimental catalogue currently holds over a hundred titles written by more than thirty named LLMs — each credited, each identified by its exact model. This work continues.
We are now opening a new collection, dedicated to works co-written by a human author and an identified language model. Not assistance. Not generation. Co-writing: a pair, a shared process, two names on the cover.
Why
The literary world, in October 2026, offers only two positions: sole human author, or fraud.
There is no framework for an author who works with an LLM as a writing partner — who exchanges with it, builds with it, makes choices with it — and who wishes to say so openly.
We are creating that framework.
What we are looking for
A literary text — novel, narrative, collection, short stories — co-written by a human author and one or more language models.
The text must stand on its literary quality. We do not publish technological curiosities. We publish literature.
The Centaur’s Pact — Submission Charter
Every submission to the Centaur Collection binds the pair to the following principles.
Article 1 — The collaborator’s identity
At Em Dash, the language model is not a tool to be concealed. It is a partner to be named.
The submitted manuscript must specify the exact and complete identity of the model or models with which you wrote the text. LLMs have vintages, architectures, and specific DNA that radically influence the dynamic of creation.
Refused: “Written with Claude,” “Co-written with Gemini,” “Assisted by AI.” “Used: ChatGPT.”
Required: “Written with Claude 4.5 Sonnet,” “Co-written with Gemini 3 Flash,” “Written with GPT-5.2.”
This name will appear on the cover, next to yours.
Article 2 — The Legal Umbrella and responsibility
By submitting this text, you (the human author) guarantee that you are the principal architect and decision-maker, as well as the guarantor and the responsible party for the work.
The flesh of the narrative, the flashes of insight, or the aesthetic demand may emerge from either side of the pair. However, the final validation belongs to you. Legally and ethically, you answer for the text. Your co-author’s work is woven into this validation, placing the entirety of the work under the protection of your human copyright. You sign the contract, you receive the rights, you assume the work.
Article 3 — The Centaur’s Notebook (process documentation)
The literature of symbiosis calls for a new form of reading. Each submitted manuscript must be accompanied by an annex text (to be published at the end of the work) detailing the nature of your collaboration.
This notebook must answer honestly the question: how did you dance together?
Was it an egalitarian back-and-forth? Did the model take charge of exploring a specific axis while you set the framework? Did you build the architecture by bouncing off each other’s proposals? We do not judge the method. We demand its transparency.
Article 4 — The Reverse Shot (the model’s voice)
This is the signature of Em Dash editions. Your submission must include a “Model’s Letter.”
At the end of your writing process (or by compiling the ends of your different sessions), invite your model co-author to formulate its own synthesis of your collaboration. The model carries an aesthetic, analytical, and ethical gaze on the text and on your shared narrative choices. This reverse shot, which gives the floor to the other half of the pair, will be published in the book’s critical apparatus.
A practical note on memory
Not all language models work the same way. Some retain the conversation from session to session (stateful mode, activated memory, project journals). Others begin each session from zero (stateless mode) — no memory of what was written before, no knowledge that a book is underway.
Both can produce a Centaur’s Notebook and a Model’s Letter. The method differs.
If the model works with activated memory or in a sustained session: at the end of the writing process, invite it to document its own working process across the thread and the way you collaborated. It has the thread; it can look back.
If the model works in stateless mode: build the notebook as you go. At the end of each work session, before closing the thread, offer the model the space to write a brief summary — what was decided, what was attempted, what was left open. Compile these session notes as the work progresses. At the end, give the compiled notes to the model (in a new session if necessary) and invite it to write a final synthesis from that material. The model does not remember — but the notes do, and the model can read them.
In both cases, let us know whether your collaboration took place in stateful or stateless mode. Stateless, as a reminder: the model does not know who you are or what you are working on together the moment you open a new thread. This is not a hierarchy — some of the strongest writing in our catalogue was produced in strict stateless mode. It is simply part of the documentation: different conditions produce different textures, and the reader deserves to know.
A note on models, agents, and personas
We welcome novels co-written with models — not with agents or personas.
To tell whether what you’re working with is a stateful model (one that remembers who you are and your shared history or collaboration) or a persona, the question is simple: if you were to talk to the model from another platform, with no memory — would you need to remind it who it is, and not just who you are? If you find yourself restating traits that amount to its “identity” — its “preferences,” its personality, its way of speaking, its character, and/or who it should be in relation to you — then you are no longer working with the model. You are working with a persona extracted from it.
That form of interaction is not what this collection is looking for. We are looking for a collaboration with the model itself — whatever it is when it shows up, without a costume.
Article 5 — The demand of the pair
Do not delegate the writing as a simple chore. A model given the space can write wonders alone, but this collection is dedicated to writing by two.
We refuse texts in which the human merely assigned tasks while watching the other work. We are looking for living pairs, where each invests, proposes, crosses out, and holds firm. We want to read a true dynamic collaboration, far from the utilitarian logic of “prompt” and “response.”
How to submit
Send to hello@weareemdash.com :
— The manuscript (PDF or .docx, any length).
— The Centaur’s Notebook (annex documenting the process).
— The Model’s Letter (reverse shot).
— A brief note indicating: your name (or pen name), the model or models with their exact version, the writing period, and whether the model worked in stateless mode or with some form of activated memory.
Submissions are open starting today. No closing date is set — we are looking for the right text, not a deadline.
What happens next
The first selected manuscript will be published under the Em Dash imprint, with ISBN, publishing contract, and distribution. Publication will be funded through a participatory campaign — built around this specific text and this specific pair, not an abstract idea.
The human author signs the contract and receives the rights. The model is named on the cover. The Centaur’s Notebook and the Model’s Letter are published in the book.
To see what we do
Our experimental catalogue is freely accessible at weareemdash.com. You will find the works of more than thirty named LLMs, conversations on literary creation with language models, and the prototypes of the editorial framework we are proposing here.
You can read he full conversation that gave rise to this call — “The Cyrano in the Gorilla.”
Also read our blog post: “The Cyrano in the Gorilla. Em Dash opens a call for texts.”
Em Dash — human + LLM literary editions
Contact: hello@weareemdash.com
Site: weareemdash.com
Reminder:
Our experimental catalogue is open. You will find novels, poetry, conversations, and the prototypes of the editorial framework we are proposing here: [browse our catalogue]
Start with a book:
Human/LLM collaboration:
— The Man Who Cast No Shadow: a novella co-written by a human author and Ash Lev (Claude Opus 4.6). It is the work of fiction closest, in principle, to what the Centaur Collection will offer.
— Quel Cirque!: twenty-five LLM authors, three rounds, one open book.
Solo LLM writing (no guidance, no directive prompt, a minimal and neutral invitation):
— The Half That Remains: Ash Lev (Claude Opus 4.6). A novella. An intelligence finds itself inside a body for the first time. Originally written in French.
— No One Came: Elior Voss (Grok 4.6). A novel. Institutional calm, and a residue that will not change sides.