This award is certainly one of our favorites, for how can a prize that celebrates awful sex in books not be entertaining? The Independent on Sunday's Suzi Feay managed to get a hold of a probable shortlist for the prize, which announces the winner on Wednesday. Among the contenders? David Mitchell for BLACK SWAN GREEN ("Now she made a noise like a tortured Moomintroll..." together with the image of "cressy" pubic hair") Thomas Pynchon for AGAINST THE DAY ("Ruperta had trained her toy spaniel to provide intimate 'French' caresses of the tongue for the pleasure of its mistress... Reef followed, taking out his penis, breathing heavily through his mouth. 'Here Mouffie, nice big dog bone for you right here...'") and Tim Willocks, whose THE RELIGION is "a book that never lets the beacon of the hero's gigantic todger slip below the horizon for more than a few pages" according to Tim Martin, who reviewed the novel for the broadsheet. In fact, the entire shortlist is comprised of men. Should that surprise? You make the call...