The Bad Sex Award of Fiction November 21st, 2008

    The Literary Review has released the shortlist for this year’s Bad Sex in Fiction award. The award is designed to

    “…gently dissuading authors and publishers from including unconvincing, perfunctory, embarrassing or redundant passages of a sexual nature in otherwise sound literary novels”.

    Here is the shortlist, in full:

    James Buchan for The Gate of Air
    Simon Montefiore for Sashenka
    John Updike for The Widows of Eastwick
    Kathy Lette for To Love, Honour and Betray
    Alastair Campbell for All in the Mind
    Rachel Johnson for Shire Hell
    Isabel Fonseca for Attachment
    Ann Allestree for Triptych of a Young Wolf
    Russell Banks for The Reserve
    Paulo Coelho for Brida

    Last year’s winner was Norman Mailer and it was well deserved. This year’s winner will be awarded the Plaster Foot award November 25th.

    {the Guardian}