Awards: Guardian Children's Fiction; Lit Review's Bad Sex

David Almond won the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize for A Song for Ella Grey. Jury member Jenny Valentine described the book as "an absolute masterclass in the transformative power of language. It is fearless, free and full of wonder and I am changed by reading it"; while judge Natasha Farrant said reading the story "hasn't just changed the way I look at Orpheus. It has changed the way I look at the world."

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Eight books made the shortlist for this year's Bad Sex in Fiction Award, established 23 years ago by the Literary Review "to draw attention to poorly written, perfunctory or redundant passages of sexual description in modern fiction, and to discourage them." The "winner" will be announced on December 1. The Guardian helpfully featured "the contenders in quotes." This year's finalists are:

Before, During, After by Richard Bausch
Book of Numbers by Joshua Cohen
Against Nature by Tomas Espedal
Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
The Making of Zombie Wars by Aleksandar Hemon
Fear of Dying by Erica Jong
List of the Lost by Morrissey
The Martini Shot by George Pelecanos

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