Bad sex

It’s that time of year again … yes, the Literary Review‘s Bad Sex Award shortlist has been announced.

As The Guardian reports, among the dubious honorees this year are Paul Theroux (for A Dead Hand), Philip Roth (for The Humbling), and Sanjida O’Connell (for The Naked Name of Love). Previous winners include Tom Wolfe, Rachel Johnson, and Sebastian Faulks — and last year, John Updike received a lifetime achievement prize after four consecutive nominations (wow).

The Literary Review’s Jonathan Beckman told the Guardian that this year’s shortlist is “very strong, with a good mix of well-known writers and others who are less well-known.” Check out the article for the full list.

Despite the fact that the Bad Sex Award was founded by Auberon Waugh to “draw attention to the crude, tasteless, often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel, and to discourage it,” the writers seem pleased with their nominations. Anna Frame of Nick Cave’s publisher Cannongate (The Death of Bunny Munro) told the Guardian, “Frankly we would have been offended if he wasn’t shortlisted,” and nominee Richard Milward (Ten Storey Love Song) said, “There’s so much bad sex in my book that this is a nice accolade.”

Click here to read the not-so-sexy excerpts. The winner will be announced on November 30 in London.

And for all you writers who are suddenly wondering how you might keep your books off this list? Visit the Guardian’s Book Blog for a post in which Sarah Duncan muses about the challenges of writing about sex — as well as Steve Almond’s awesome Boston Phoenix article, “Writing Sex.”

And may all your writing be sexy.