The Bad Sex in Fiction Award is organised by the Literary Review and was established in 1993 by journalist and writer Auberon Waugh. The prize exists to draw attention to poorly written, perfunctory or redundant passages of sexual description in modern fiction. Because of the ‘redundant’ part of the prize, the Bad Sex in Fiction award does not cover pornographic or expressly erotic literature.
Winning isn’t the greatest accolade, but the award does get a lot of attention, and all attention is good attention surely? The winner of the 2017 award is US author Christopher Bollen for his novel The Destroyers.
Although the novel in itself was well received, Bad Sex judges chose it for the reward after a scene depicting sex between the protagonist, Ian and his ex-girlfriend on the island of Patmos. The scene reads “She covers her breasts with her swimsuit… The skin along her arms and shoulders are different shades of tan like water stains in a bathtub.”
Bollen, who is an author and editor-at-large at Interview Magazine didn’t attend the ceremony to collect his award. He shouldn’t feel too bad, sex scenes are notoriously hard to write and he isn’t the first author to falter, hence this award. I’m sure most of us have read some uncomfortable sex scene in the middle of a novel, just because the author felt it should be there. Advice for authors, just tell us they had sex and save the metaphors, avoiding words like ‘heaving, and throbbing’, and we’ll love you for it!
The For Reading Addicts Book of the Year 2023
Robert Maxwell Biography Among Costa Book Award Winners
Female winner of 1m Euro literary prize turns out to be three men
Marcus Rashford Named FutureBook Person of the Year
2021 Nobel Prize Winner Announced
2021 Kindle Storyteller Shortlist Announced!