Literary Reviewis a Britishliterary magazinefounded in 1979 byAnne Smith,then head of the Department of English at theUniversity of Edinburgh.Its offices are on Lexington Street inSoho.[1]The magazine was edited for fourteen years by veteran journalistAuberon Waugh.The current editor is Nancy Sladek.
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| Editor | Nancy Sladek |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 11 per year |
| Circulation | 44,750 (as of 2006[?])[1][self-published source] |
| Founded | 1979 |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Based in | London |
| Language | English |
| Website | literaryreview |
| ISSN | 0144-4360 |
The magazine reviews a wide range of published books, including fiction, history, politics, biography and travel, and additionally prints new fiction. It is also known for the annualBad Sex in Fiction Awardthat it has run since 1993.
Bad Sex in Fiction Award
editEach year since 1993,Literary Reviewhas presented the annual Bad Sex in Fiction Award to theauthorit deems to have produced the worst description of a sex scene in anovel.The award is symbolically presented in the form of what has been described as a "semi-abstract trophy representing sex in the 1950s",[2]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".[2]The enduring relevance of this rationale has been questioned, based on concerns about censoriouspublic shaming(includingonline) of authors of seriousliterary fiction.[3]
Winners
edit- 1993:Melvyn Bragg,A Time to Dance[4]
- 1994:Philip Hook,The Stonebreakers[4]
- 1995:Philip Kerr,Gridiron[4]
- 1996:David Huggins,The Big Kiss: An Arcade Mystery[4]
- 1997:Nicholas Royle,The Matter of the Heart[4]
- 1998:Sebastian Faulks,Charlotte Gray[4]
- 1999:A. A. Gill,Starcrossed[4]
- 2000:Sean Thomas,Kissing England[5]
- 2001:Christopher Hart,Rescue Me
- 2002:Wendy Perriam,Tread Softly[2]
- 2003:Aniruddha Bahal,Bunker 13
- 2004:Tom Wolfe,I Am Charlotte Simmons
- 2005:Giles Coren,Winkler[6]
- 2006:Iain Hollingshead,Twenty Something[7]
- 2007:Norman Mailer,The Castle in the Forest[8]
- 2008:Rachel Johnson,Shire Hell;John Updike,Lifetime Achievement Award[9]
- 2009:Jonathan Littell,The Kindly Ones
- 2010:Rowan Somerville,The Shape of Her[10]
- 2011:David Guterson,Ed King[11]
- 2012:Nancy Huston,Infrared[12]
- 2013:Manil Suri,The City of Devi
- 2014:Ben Okri,The Age of Magic[13]
- 2015:Morrissey,List of the Lost[14]
- 2016:Erri De Luca,The Day Before Happiness
- 2017:Christopher Bollen,The Destroyers
- 2018:James Frey,Katerina
- 2019:Didier Decoin,The Office of Gardens and PondsandJohn Harvey,Pax[15]
- 2020: Not awarded, citing that people have been "subjected to too many bad things this year" already.[16]
- 2022: Not awarded, but according to the judges, if there had been an award, it would have gone toSuleika DawsonforThe Secret Heart[17]
Contributors
editContributors to the magazine have includedDiana Athill,Kingsley Amis,Martin Amis,Beryl Bainbridge,John Banville,Julian Barnes,Maile Chapman,Boris Dralyuk,Hilary Mantel,John Mortimer,Malcolm Bradbury,A. S. Byatt,Paul Johnson,David Starkey,John Gray,Robert Harris,Nick Hornby,Richard Ingrams,Joseph O'Neill,Lynn Barber,Derek Mahon,Oleg Gordievsky,John SutherlandandD. J. Taylor.Recently[when?]published authors of new fiction includeWilliam Trevor,Claire KeeganandNicola Barker.
References
edit- ^ab"Literary Review media kit (PDF)"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 29 October 2008.
- ^abc"Third time 'lucky' for bad sex winner".BBC News.3 December 2005.Retrieved27 November2007.
- ^Gough, Julian(28 November 2019)."I was nominated for the Bad sex award. Don't laugh".The Guardian.
It is possible that the Bad sex award had a point when it was established back in 1993. After the collapse of Britain's obscenity laws, and before the internet, authors were occasionally encouraged to add some gratuitous sex in order to sell books, giving us the bonkbuster. But that era is long gone... I find the Bad sex award, at this point in its history, in bad faith. Its basic premise – that authors are adding unnecessary and lazy sex to increase sales – is not just wrong, it's the reverse of the truth. The award very deliberately avoids shortlisting actual pornography or erotica and instead targets authors who are trying to be honest about desire and sex, however distasteful the results may be. It deliberately and successfully encourages the worst, and dumbest, misreading of fiction; the conflating of authors with their characters in order to publicly shame them.
- ^abcdefgRhind-Tutt, Louise (27 November 2017)."Celebrating 25 years of the worst sex scenes in literary history".i.
- ^"Sean Thomas wins the Bad Sex in Fiction Award".PR Newswire(Press release).Retrieved27 November2007.
- ^"Bad sex book prize for journalist".BBC News.1 December 2005.Retrieved27 November2007.
- ^"First-time author wins Bad Sex in Fiction honor".Associated Press. 29 November 2006.Retrieved27 November2007.
- ^"Late Mailer wins 'bad sex' award".BBC News.27 November 2007.Retrieved27 November2007.
- ^Flood, Alison (25 November 2008)."Rachel Johnson 'honoured' to win Bad Sex award".The Guardian.
- ^"Author Somerville wins 'bad sex' literary prize".BBC News.30 November 2010.Retrieved30 November2010.
- ^"Jonathan Beckman - Bad Sex Report 2011".Literary Review.December 2011.
- ^Maev Kennedy(4 December 2012)."Bad sex award goes to Nancy Huston's 'babies and bedazzlements'".The Guardian.Retrieved4 December2012.
- ^"Jonathan Beckman - Twitching Fairy Penguin".Literary Review.December 2014.
- ^"Morrissey wins Bad Sex in Fiction prize".BBC News.1 December 2015.Retrieved2 December2015.
- ^"Literary Review - For People Who Devour Books".Literary Review.17 August 2023.
- ^Chandler, Mark (8 December 2020)."Bad Sex award cancelled to spare people from more bad things".The Bookseller.Retrieved8 December2020.
- ^Croft, Ethan (9 December 2022)."Bad Sex Award cancelled, but John Le Carré's still a winner".Evening Standard.Retrieved12 July2023.