Each year since 1993,
Literary Review has presented the annual Bad Sex in Fiction Award to the
author it deems to have produced the worst description of a sex scene in a
novel. The award is symbolically presented in the form of what has been described as a "semi-abstract trophy representing sex in the 1950s", depicting a naked woman draped over an open book. The award was established by Rhoda Koenig, a literary critic, and Auberon Waugh, then the magazine's editor. The aim of the award is "to draw attention to the crude, tasteless, often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel, and to discourage it".
Winners • 1993:
Melvyn Bragg,
A Time to Dance • 1994:
Philip Hook,
The Stonebreakers, • 2001:
Christopher Hart,
Rescue Me • 2002:
Wendy Perriam,
Tread Softly • 2006:
Iain Hollingshead,
Twenty Something • 2007:
Norman Mailer,
The Castle in the Forest • 2008:
Rachel Johnson,
Shire Hell;
John Updike, Lifetime Achievement Award • 2009:
Jonathan Littell,
The Kindly Ones • 2010:
Rowan Somerville,
The Shape of Her • 2011:
David Guterson,
Ed King • 2012:
Nancy Huston,
Infrared • 2013:
Manil Suri,
The City of Devi • 2014:
Ben Okri,
The Age of Magic • 2015:
Morrissey,
List of the Lost • 2016:
Erri De Luca,
The Day Before Happiness • 2017:
Christopher Bollen,
The Destroyers • 2018:
James Frey,
Katerina, presented by
Kim Wilde • 2019:
Didier Decoin,
The Office of Gardens and Ponds and
John Harvey,
Pax, presented by
Nicky Haslam • 2020: Not awarded, citing that people have been "subjected to too many bad things this year" • 2021: Not awarded. • 2022: Not awarded, but according to the judges, if there had been an award, it would have gone to
Suleika Dawson for
The Secret Heart. ==Contributors==