''Literary Review'' is a British
literary magazine founded in 1979 by
Anne Smith, then head of the Department of English at the
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...
. Its offices are on Lexington Street in
Soho.
The magazine was edited for fourteen years by veteran journalist
Auberon Waugh. The current editor is Nancy Sladek.
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 annual Bad Sex in Fiction Award that it has run since 1993.
Bad Sex in Fiction Award
Each year since 1993, ''Literary Review'' has presented the annual Bad Sex in Fiction Award to the
author
In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...
it deems to have produced the worst description of a sex scene in a
novel
A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...
. 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".
The enduring relevance of this rationale has been questioned, based on concerns about censorious
public shaming (including
online
In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity, and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed as "on lin ...
) of authors of serious
literary fiction
Literary fiction, serious fiction, high literature, or artistic literature, and sometimes just literature, encompasses fiction books and writings that are more character-driven rather than plot-driven, that examine the human condition, or that are ...
.
Winners
* 1993:
Melvyn Bragg, ''A Time to Dance''
* 1994:
Philip Hook, ''The Stonebreakers''
* 1995:
Philip Kerr, ''
Gridiron''
* 1996:
David Huggins, ''The Big Kiss: An Arcade Mystery''
* 1997:
Nicholas Royle, ''The Matter of the Heart''
* 1998:
Sebastian Faulks, ''
Charlotte Gray''
* 1999:
A. A. Gill, ''Starcrossed''
* 2000:
Sean Thomas, ''Kissing England''
* 2001:
Christopher Hart, ''Rescue Me''
* 2002:
Wendy Perriam, ''Tread Softly''
* 2003:
Aniruddha Bahal, ''
Bunker 13''
* 2004:
Tom Wolfe
Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (March 2, 1930 – May 14, 2018)Some sources say 1931; ''The New York Times'' and Reuters both initially reported 1931 in their obituaries before changing to 1930. See and was an American author and journalist widely ...
, ''
I Am Charlotte Simmons''
* 2005:
Giles Coren, ''
Winkler''
* 2006:
Iain Hollingshead, ''Twenty Something''
* 2007:
Norman Mailer
Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American writer, journalist and filmmaker. In a career spanning more than six decades, Mailer had 11 best-selling books, at least ...
, ''
The Castle in the Forest''
* 2008:
Rachel Johnson, ''Shire Hell'';
John Updike
John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth Tar ...
, 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
Steven Patrick Morrissey ( ; born 22 May 1959), known :wikt:mononym, mononymously as Morrissey, is an English singer and songwriter. He came to prominence as the frontman and lyricist of rock band the Smiths, who were active from 1982 to 198 ...
, ''
List of the Lost''
* 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 Ponds'' and
John Harvey, ''Pax''
* 2020: Not awarded, citing that people have been "subjected to too many bad things this year" already.
* 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
Contributors to the magazine have included
Diana Athill,
Kingsley Amis,
Martin Amis,
Beryl Bainbridge,
John Banville,
Julian Barnes,
Maile Chapman,
Boris Dralyuk,
Hilary Mantel
Dame Hilary Mary Mantel ( ; born Thompson; 6 July 1952 – 22 September 2022) was a British writer whose work includes historical fiction, personal memoirs and short stories. Her first published novel, ''Every Day Is Mother's Day'', was releas ...
,
John Mortimer,
Malcolm Bradbury,
A. S. Byatt,
Paul Johnson,
David Starkey
Dr. David Robert Starkey (born 3 January 1945) is a British historian, radio and television presenter, with views that he describes as conservative. The only child of Quaker parents, he attended Kirkbie Kendal School, Kendal Grammar School b ...
,
John Gray,
Robert Harris,
Nick Hornby,
Richard Ingrams,
Joseph O'Neill,
Lynn Barber,
Derek Mahon,
Oleg Gordievsky,
John Sutherland and
D. J. Taylor. Recently published authors of new fiction include
William Trevor,
Claire Keegan and
Nicola Barker.
References
External links
* {{Official website, https://literaryreview.co.uk/
Literary Review's Bad Sex in Fiction AwardCompendium of winners
1979 establishments in the United Kingdom
Book review magazines
Literary magazines published in the United Kingdom
Magazines established in 1979
Magazines published in London