A literary magazine invented an award for fiction's worst sex scenes

Literary Review's own award page credits Rhoda Koenig and Auberon Waugh with founding the prize in 1993.

Historical event

January 1, 1993

Site publication

September 18, 2026

The record

Since 1993, the Literary Review's own award page states, 'the Bad Sex in Fiction Award has honoured the year's most outstandingly awful scene of sexual description in an otherwise good novel.' The page credits its creation to 'Rhoda Koenig, a literary critic, and Auberon Waugh, at that time editor of Literary Review,' and describes its aim as drawing attention to 'poorly written, redundant, or downright cringeworthy passages of sexual description in modern fiction,' while explicitly excluding pornographic or expressly erotic writing from consideration. The magazine's own about page corroborates Waugh's role, noting he 'served as editor in the 1980s for fourteen years,' after the magazine's 1979 founding in Edinburgh by Dr Anne Smith.

What the documents show

The award page establishes the year, the two founders' names, and the award's stated purpose, but it does not, as retrieved, detail the full judging mechanism beyond noting that judges deliberate and vote on finalists before an annual ceremony announces the result. The about page adds institutional continuity rather than new facts about the award specifically: it confirms Waugh's editorship without independently dating the award's 1993 founding, so the single-year claim rests on the award page alone among the sources inspected here.

Why it stays interesting

An award built around ridicule sits at an odd angle to most literary prizes, which exist to confer distinction rather than withhold it, and its narrow target, published sexual description specifically, rather than bad writing generally, is itself a piece of editorial judgment worth noting: the page's own exclusion of pornographic writing suggests the prize is aimed at incongruity, an otherwise serious novel undone by one scene, rather than at genre or explicitness as such. This is an editorial reading of what the stated criteria imply, not a claim the page makes outright.

What to read next

A reader interested in how literary institutions define their own judging criteria could check the entry on the Women's Prize for Fiction's 1996 founding, which restricts eligibility by author rather than by content, or a record of the Booker Prize's 2014 eligibility change for a contrasting expansion of scope.

• How does the judging panel reach its shortlist and winner each year, beyond the stated vote?
• Has the award's stated exclusion of erotic fiction been tested by a borderline nomination?
• What has the ceremony's public reception revealed about how authors and publishers respond to the honour?

The record supports a 1993 founding credited to Koenig and Waugh and a stated purpose distinguishing awkward description from explicit content; it does not, on the pages inspected, supply a founding-year date more precise than the year itself, and a reader should treat the judging process as summarized rather than fully documented.

Sources & reading trail

The award's own page crediting its 1993 founding to Rhoda Koenig and Auberon Waugh and describing its stated purpose and exclusions.

Source published: Not established · Retrieved: 16 September 2026

The magazine's own account of its 1979 founding and Auberon Waugh's fourteen-year editorship, corroborating his role at the time of the award's founding.

Source published: Not established · Retrieved: 16 September 2026

Reports, filings, records and studies establish the entry; the reading of why it stays interesting is Chapter Ledger editorial analysis. This retrospective draft does not imply the site published on the event date.

Continue reading

• An all-male shortlist led to a prize restricted to women novelists
• A circle of working critics decided to judge its own year's books
• A literary prize chose expansion over a second award
• Browse the complete the ledger archive

Published September 18, 2026, not on the date of the event described.