US author James Frey has been named the winner of the 2018 Bad Sex in Fiction Award for his novel Katerina.
The judges at the Literary Review said they had been swayed by several sex scenes in the novel, which include encounters in a car park and in the back of a taxi, but were especially convinced by an extended scene in a Paris bathroom between Jay and Katerina that features eight references to ejaculate.
We both move toward each other kissing deeply slowly heavily, lips and tongues, her hands are immediately in my pants, I lift her off the ground set her on the sink tear off her thong. She says now I ask her if she has a condom she says now, Jay, now. I step between her legs.
Move inside her.
She’s tight and wet, leans back against the mirror.
Forward.
Deeper inside her.
Forward.
Tight and wet.
She moans pulls my face to hers kisses me. I start moving inside her, slow hard and deep, her hands gripping the sides of the sink, my hands on her shoulders, we’re looking into each other’s eyes pale green and light brown like cocoa. Do you like my pussy, Jay?
[…]
I’m hard and deep inside her fucking her on the bathroom sink her tight little black dress still on her thong on the floor my pants at my knees our eyes locked, our hearts and souls and bodies locked.
Cum inside me.
Cum inside me.
Cum inside me.
Blinding breathless shaking overwhelming exploding white God I cum inside her my cock throbbing we’re both moaning eyes hearts souls bodies one.
One.
White.
God.
Cum.
Cum.
Cum.
I close my eyes let out my breath.
Cum.
Frey won the literary world’s most notorious booby prize after fighting off stiff (or should that be, swollen?) competition from an all-male shortlist, which also featured acclaimed author Haruki Murakami.
You can read extracts from the 2018 shortlist right here on Nothing in the Rulebook.
Responding to his win, the author said: “I am deeply honoured and humbled to receive this prestigious award. Kudos to all my distinguished fellow finalists – you have all provided me with many hours of enjoyable reading over the last year.”
In the past, other winners of the award have reacted with disdain for the Literary Review’s award. Some previous winners have even described receiving the dubious honour as “a repulsive horror”.
Organisers say the purpose of the prize is “to draw attention to poorly written, perfunctory or redundant passages of sexual description in modern fiction”.
Read extracts of all the winning authors of the Bad Sex in Fiction award since 1993
Recent winners include Morrissey’s debut novel List of the Lost, which has become infamous for its use of the phrase “bulbous salutation”. Last year the award went to American writer Christopher Bollen for his novel The Destroyers.
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