Jonathan Gharraie reports an unintended consequence of the Bad Sex in Fiction Awards, founded in 1993 by Auberon Waugh:
Waugh’s intention was to discourage the gratuitous inclusion of scenes of a sexual nature by writers seemingly desperate for attention. This plan, as his son Alexander concedes tonight, has backfired. Writers respect and fear this award, but they also court it. Alexander Waugh explains that publishers will now encourage their authors to lace their sex scenes with added "spunk," and recounts how former political spin doctor Alastair Campbell was deservingly cheated out of last year’s award simply for wanting it too much.
Jonathan Beckman, Literary Review editor and a judge for the awards, defends them:
Good sex writing … is clear, precise and unillusioned in both senses: it refuses to take part in a diversionary pantomime of imagery; and it knows that sex is rooted in the physical. It is generally unobtrusive and undemonstrative. For this reason it makes no sense, as our critics have often argued, to institute a good sex prize, any more than it would to reward the best scene involving a kitchen garden or the most skilful use of semicolons. The awkwardness and evasion with which some writers describe sex, however, frequently point to more widespread stylistic flaws.
The Dish 