From The Telegraph:
The shortlist for the 22nd Bad Sex in Fiction Award has been announced.
According to Literary Review, which has run the prize every year since 1993, its purpose "is to draw attention to poorly written, perfunctory or redundant passages of sexual description in modern fiction, and to discourage them".
The 2014 shortlist contains some illustrious books, including The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan, recipient of this year's Man Booker Prize, The Snow Queen by Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Cunningham, and Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami. Also featured is BBC broadcaster Kirsty Wark for her debut novel, The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle.
The Bad Sex panel also considered Andrew Marr's questionable prose in his political thriller Head of State – "they bucked like deer and squirmed like eels", reads one sexual description – but ultimately was not selected.
Past winners include Melvyn Bragg for A Time to Dance (1993), Sebastian Faulks for Charlotte Gray (1998), and Norman Mailer for A Castle in the Forest (2007). A Lifetime Achievement Award for Bad Sex in Fiction was given to John Updike in 2008. Last year's winner, The City of Devi by Manil Suri, described a sexual episode through a metaphor of exploding supernovas.
So far, the 2014 shortlist includes:
The Snow Queen by Michael Cunningham
The Narrow Road to the Deep Northby Richard Flanagan
The Hormone Factory by Saskia Goldschmidt
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami
The Age of Magic by Ben Okri
The Affairs of Others by Amy Grace Loyd
Desert God by Wilbur Smith
Things to Make and Break by May-Lan Tan
The Lemon Grove by Helen Walsh
The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle by Kirsty Wark
Below is a selection of quotations from this year's nominees:
"Her body was hairless. Her pudenda were also entirely devoid of hair. The tips of her inner lips protruded shyly from the vertical cleft. The sweet dew of feminine arousal glistened upon them." Wilbur Smith, Desert God
"Her mouth is clean in an herbal way, no herb in particular but that sense of green rampancy." Michael Cunningham, The Snow Queen
"He kissed the slight, rose-coloured trench that remained from her knicker elastic, running around her belly like the equator line." Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North
"When his hand brushed her nipple it tripped a switch & she came alight. He touched her belly & his hand seemed to burn through her." Ben Okri, The Age of Magic
"I unbuttoned my pants, pushing them down past my hips, and my beast, finally released from its cage, sprang up wildly. I started inching my way back up, continuing to stimulate her manually, until the beast found its way in." Saskia Goldshmidt, The Hormone Factory
"I arched my body against him and taking his hand I guided it down over my navel and placed it between my legs, my hand on top of his, holding it there, gasping as his fingers circled me softly. I had never imagined that I was capable of wanton behaviour, but it was as if a dam within me had burst and we made love that day and night like two people starved, slowly suffused with more and more pleasure, exploring and devouring every inch of each other, so as not to miss one single possibility of passion. It was as if I were drinking in life itself." Kirsty Wark, The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle
"She became aware of him gliding into her. He loved her with gentleness & strength, stroking her neck, praising her face with his hands, till she was broken up & began a low rhythmic wail." Ben Okri, The Age of Magic
"Her throat as open as her body, wet everywhere from tears and the coming, and I did hear it, a long high twisting cry and a twisting in my arms as my fingers dove up and up into the full expressive wetness of her." Amy Grace Loyd, The Affairs of Others
"She comes and comes, waves of hot silk – I grit my teeth and push her off. I bend her over and really give it to her." May-Lan Tan, Things to Make and Break
"He feared losing himself, his freedom, his future. What had a moment before aroused him so intensely now seemed charmless" Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North
"The girls entwined themselves lithely around Tsukuru. Kuro’s breasts were full and soft. Shiro’s were small, but her nipples were as hard as tiny round pebbles. Their pubic hair was as wet as a rain forest." Haruki Murakami, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
"His mouth is on hers; his tongue is jabbing around her gums, the wrinkled roof of her mouth." Helen Walsh, The Lemon Grove
The winner will be announced on December 3.