Yes, it is an actual award. No, it's not as funny as it sounds.
The award is given to an author each year who has “produced an outstandingly bad scene of sexual description in an otherwise good novel” as decided by Literary Review. It is, according to the award’s guidelines, meant to “draw attention to poorly written, perfunctory or redundant passages of sexual description in modern fiction, and to discourage them.”
This Dec. the award was given to British singer Morrissey’s debut novel, List of the Lost , which describes the story of a 1970s relay team who accidentally kills a demon and end up cursed as a result. The following passage is what scored him the prize.
“At this, Eliza and Ezra rolled together into one giggling snowball of full-figured copulation, screaming and shouting as they playfully bit and pulled at each other in a dangerous and clamorous rollercoaster coil of sexually violent rotation with Eliza's breasts barrel-rolled across Ezra's howling mouth and the pained frenzy of his bulbous salutation extenuating his excitement as it whacked and smacked its way into every muscle of Eliza's body except for the otherwise central zone.”
No one can say that this passage isn’t indicative of the rest of the book. Morrissey’s whole book is more or less written similarly, whether he’s writing about sex or not. Here’s another excerpt.
"Preciously kneeling on the upper-crust carpeting, the boys were inexpressive and almost beloved, as Isaac managed a third and then a fourth deathblow that finished off both Nails and Justy with a cosy killer's cuddle."
This passage might not be about sex, but I’m not entirely sure what it is about either. I am not the only one. The Guardian went so far as to say that Morrissey’s publishers should be ashamed of themselves. The publication also referred to the book as an “unpolished turd” in another article.
All of that said, does Morrissey really deserve the title of having the worst sex scene in literature this year?
The Bad Sex in Fiction Award isn’t really an award anyone wants, whether it is true or not. All it does is make writers feel bad about themselves. It provides no constructive criticism on how a writer can improve. Additionally, no one from the review board ever says what they think a good sex scene looks like.
Instead the award is simply about laughing at those who tried to write sex, and sex is incredibly hard to write. It's hard to describe sensual acts in a way that isn't funny, which tends to be because if the average person flips open a book to a sex scene, it is almost guaranteed that they will start giggling like a fifth grader. It’s a topic that authors seem to shy away from. No one wants to tackle it. They leave things up to implication instead of stating what actually happens.
However, sex is a natural aspect of life. It’s pretty normal. As such, shouldn’t we as a writing community be encouraging authors to write about sex, to explore sex in fiction?
By promoting this award, we're instead just ridiculing them for attempting to do so. The Bad Sex in Fiction award makes fun of authors for writing about sex, without giving them anyway to improve, or any guidelines regarding what makes a good sex scene. As such, how is anyone supposed to get better at writing sex anytime soon? I'm not sure if I want to be a part of a literary community that is only promoting making fun of those attempting to write rather than encouraging and helping them to do better.
