Bad S-x in Fiction Award 2017 shortlist announced

In the UK, the Literary Review has announced the Bad S-x in Fiction Award shortlist for 2017.

The seven shortlisted books are:

• The Seventh Function of Language (Laurent Binet, Vintage)
• The Destroyers (Christopher Bollen, S&S)
• Mother of Darkness (Venetia Welby, Quartet Books)
• As a God Might Be (Neil Griffiths, Dodo Ink)
• The Future Won’t Be Long (Jarett Kobek, Serpent’s Tail)
• War Cry (Wilbur Smith & David Churchill, HarperCollins)
• Here Comes Trouble (Simon Wroe, Weidenfeld & Nicolson).
  

The Literary Review said Monique Roffey’s erotic novella The Tryst (Dodo Ink) received many nominations, but was not eligible as the prize ‘is not intended to cover pornographic or expressly erotic literature’. Vince Cable’s Open Arms also did not qualify for the shortlist ‘because its author is a Member of Parliament’.

The Bad S-x in Fiction Award was established in 1993 to ‘draw attention to poorly written, perfunctory or redundant passages of sexual description in modern fiction’. However, Literary Review assistant editor Frank Brinkley told the Guardian that sex scenes in fiction were improving. ‘There’s plenty of sex around (such as in Patrick Ness) but a lot of it is quite good’, said Brinkley. ‘Maybe we are having an effect.’

The winner of this year’s prize will be announced on 30 November. The Guardian has published extracts from the shortlisted novels here.

Category: International news