Unprintable: The LitReactor Podcast Episode 25 - The Bad Sex Awards (Guest: Rachel Kramer Bussel)

Every episode, Unprintable will take an irreverent look at books, the publishing industry, reading, writing, and more; featuring the know-it-all geekery of LitReactor Review Editor Cath Murphy, Education Director Rob Hart, Managing Editor Joshua Chaplinsky, Class Facilitator Renee Asher Pickup, and Columnist Brandon Tietz.


Episode 25 - The Bad Sex Awards (Guest: Rachel Kramer Bussel)

Sex sells, but who's buying? EVERYONE. This episode we are joined by New Jersey-based author, editor, blogger, LitReactor instructor, and event organizer Rachel Kramer Bussel. Trust us, if anyone knows about erotica and writing good sex, it is her. Check out her credentials.

News: Silly wimmins, Lolita is for men. Rebecca Solnit, inventor of the term ‘mansplaining’, takes aim at the men who tell her she’s wrong about Lolita.

Reads: Cath applies dance lessons to life with The Art of Grace, Renee gets notorious with Ruth Bader G, and Rachel gets sexy and makes you blush with books for lovers and submissives.

Topic: The Bad Sex Award - does it help or hinder good sex writing?

Each year since 1993, the Bad Sex in Fiction Award has honoured an author who has produced an outstandingly bad scene of sexual description in an otherwise good novel. The purpose of the prize is to draw attention to poorly written, perfunctory or redundant passages of sexual description in modern fiction, and to discourage them. The prize is not intended to cover pornographic or expressly erotic literature.

This year the award went to List of the Lost by Morrissey, a decision Cath agrees with completely. But do we need an award like this to draw attention to bad sex writing, or does it just make people think that all writing about sex is ridiculous?

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Any questions? Comments? Criticisms? Suggestions? Help us help you. Email them to podcast@litreactor.com.


Your Hosts This Episode:

Cath Murphy Cath Murphy is the Review Editor for LitReactor, and together with Eve Harvey, blogs and podcasts at Domestic Hell and Vulpes Libris.

Renee Asher Pickup Renee Asher Pickup is a class facilitator at LitReactor, as well as a writer and editor at Dirge Magazine. Her fiction has been published in places like All Due Respect magazine, Out of the Gutter Online, Pantheon Magazine, and the Solarcidal Tendencies anthology. Renee credits Stephen King with making her want to write and From Dusk Til Dawn with making her want to do it for a living. More at www.reneeasherpickup.com.


Special thanks to Gordon Highland for the intro and musical cues. Visit him at gordonhighland.com.

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