''Literary Review'' is a British

literary magazine A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry, and essays, along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and lett ...

founded in 1979 by Anne Smith, then head of the Department of English at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 1 ...

. Its offices are on Lexington Street in

Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was deve ...

. 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 An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

it deems to have produced the worst description of a sex scene in a

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself ...

. 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 "on line" ...

) of authors of serious literary fiction.

Winners

* 1993:

Melvyn Bragg Melvyn Bragg, Baron Bragg, (born 6 October 1939), is an English broadcaster, author and parliamentarian. He is best known for his work with ITV as editor and presenter of '' The South Bank Show'' (1978–2010), and for the BBC Radio 4 documen ...

, ''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 Sebastian Charles Faulks (born 20 April 1953) is a British novelist, journalist and broadcaster. He is best known for his historical novels set in France – ''The Girl at the Lion d'Or'', '' Birdsong'' and '' Charlotte Gray''. He has also pub ...

, '' Charlotte Gray'' * 1999:

A. A. Gill Adrian Anthony Gill (28 June 1954 – 10 December 2016) was a British journalist, critic, and author. Best known for his food and travel writing, he was also a television critic, was restaurant reviewer of ''The Sunday Times'', wrote for '' Van ...

, ''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 ''I Am Charlotte Simmons'' is a 2004 novel by Tom Wolfe, concerning sexual and status relationships at the fictional Dupont University. Wolfe researched the novel by talking to students at North Carolina, Florida, Penn, Duke, Stanford, and ...

'' * 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 novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, activist, filmmaker and actor. In a career spanning over six decades, Maile ...

, '' 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 Jonathan Littell (born October 10, 1967) is a writer living in Barcelona. He grew up in France and the United States and is a citizen of both countries. After acquiring his bachelor's degree he worked for a humanitarian organisation for nine year ...

, '' The Kindly Ones'' * 2010: Rowan Somerville, ''The Shape of Her'' * 2011:

David Guterson David Guterson ( ; born May 4, 1956) is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, journalist, and essayist. He is best known as the author of the bestselling Japanese American internment novel ''Snow Falling on Cedars''. Early life Gute ...

, ''Ed King'' * 2012: Nancy Huston, ''Infrared'' * 2013:

Manil Suri Manil Suri (born July 1959) is an Indian-American mathematician and writer of a trilogy of novels all named for Hindu gods. His first novel, '' The Death of Vishnu'' (2001), which was long-listed for the 2001 Booker Prize, short-listed for the ...

, ''The City of Devi'' * 2014: Ben Okri, ''The Age of Magic'' * 2015:

Morrissey Steven Patrick Morrissey (; born 22 May 1959), known professionally 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 1987. Since th ...

, '' List of the Lost'' * 2016:

Erri De Luca Enrico "Erri" De Luca (born 20 May 1950, Naples) is an Italian novelist, translator and poet. He has been recognized by critic Giorgio De Rienzo of ''Corriere della Sera'' as "the writer of the decade". He is also known for his opposition to th ...

, ''The Day Before Happiness'' * 2017:

Christopher Bollen Christopher Bollen (born November 26, 1975) is an American novelist and magazine writer/editor who lives in New York City. Describing his novels, ''The Daily Telegraph'' notes that "Bollen writes expansive, psychologically probing novels in the m ...

, '' The Destroyers'' * 2018: James Frey, ''Katerina'' * 2019:

Didier Decoin Didier Decoin (born 13 March 1945) is a French screenwriter and writer awarded the Prix Goncourt in 1977. Biography He is the son of filmmaker Henri Decoin. He began his career as a newspaper journalist at '' France Soir'', '' Le Figaro'' an ...

, ''The Office of Gardens and Ponds'' and

John Harvey John Harvey may refer to: People Academics * John Harvey (astrologer) (1564–1592), English astrologer and physician * John Harvey (architectural historian) (1911–1997), British architectural historian, who wrote on English Gothic architecture ...

, ''Pax'' * 2020: Not awarded, citing that people have been "subjected to too many bad things this year" already.

Contributors

Contributors to the magazine have included Diana Athill,

Kingsley Amis Sir Kingsley William Amis (16 April 1922 – 22 October 1995) was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, short stories, radio and television scripts, and works of social ...

Martin Amis Martin Louis Amis (born 25 August 1949) is a British novelist, essayist, memoirist, and screenwriter. He is best known for his novels ''Money'' (1984) and ''London Fields'' (1989). He received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his memoir ' ...

Beryl Bainbridge Dame Beryl Margaret Bainbridge (21 November 1932 – 2 July 2010) was an English writer from Liverpool. She was primarily known for her works of psychological fiction, often macabre tales set among the English working class. Bainbridge won the ...

John Banville William John Banville (born 8 December 1945) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, adapter of dramas and screenwriter. Though he has been described as "the heir to Proust, via Nabokov", Banville himself maintains that W. B. Yeats and Henry J ...

Julian Barnes Julian Patrick Barnes (born 19 January 1946) is an English writer. He won the Man Booker Prize in 2011 with ''The Sense of an Ending'', having been shortlisted three times previously with '' Flaubert's Parrot'', '' England, England'', and ''Art ...

, 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 relea ...

John Mortimer Sir John Clifford Mortimer (21 April 1923 – 16 January 2009) was a British barrister, dramatist, screenwriter and author. He is best known for novels about a barrister named Horace Rumpole. Early life Mortimer was born in Hampstead, London ...

, Malcolm Bradbury,

A. S. Byatt Dame Antonia Susan Duffy ( Drabble; born 24 August 1936), known professionally by her former marriage name as A. S. Byatt ( ), is an English critic, novelist, poet and short story writer. Her books have been widely translated, into more than t ...

, Paul Johnson, David Starkey, John Gray, Robert Harris,

Nick Hornby Nicholas Peter John Hornby (born 17 April 1957) is an English writer and lyricist. He is best known for his memoir '' Fever Pitch'' and novels '' High Fidelity'' and '' About a Boy'', all of which were adapted into feature films. Hornby's work ...

, Richard Ingrams, Joseph O'Neill, Lynn Barber, Derek Mahon, Oleg Gordievsky, John Sutherland and

D. J. Taylor David John Taylor (born 1960) is a British critic, novelist and biographer. After attending school in Norwich, he read Modern History at St John's College, Oxford, and has received the 2003 Whitbread Biography Award for his biography of Geo ...

. Recently published authors of new fiction include

William Trevor William Trevor Cox (24 May 1928 – 20 November 2016), known by his pen name William Trevor, was an Irish novelist, playwright, and short story writer. One of the elder statesmen of the Irish literary world, he is widely regarded as one of th ...

Claire Keegan Claire Keegan (born 1968) is an Irish writer known for her short stories, which have been published in ''The New Yorker'', ''Best American Short Stories'', ''Granta'', and ''The Paris Review''. Biography Born in County Wicklow in 1968, Keegan i ...

and

Nicola Barker Nicola Barker (born 30 March 1966) is an English novelist and short story writer. She was born in Ely, Cambridgeshire, England. When she was still young her parents left England and settled in South Africa. Fiction Typically she writes about ...

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://literaryreview.co.uk/
Literary Review's Bad Sex in Fiction Award

Compendium 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