David Guterson has won the Literary Review‘s Bad Sex in Literature Award for his novel, Ed King. The shortlist included books by Lee Child, Haruki Murakami and James Frey.

Washington Post book critic Ron Charles actually predicted the win in his review of the novel in early November.

Here’s more from Charles’ review: “I wouldn’t blame you for skipping this book entirely, but if you must, turn to page 236. What follows are three pages that might very well win the Literary Review’s annual Bad Sex Award, including my personal ‘ick’ moment: ‘Ed smelled vulnerably digestive.’”

The shortlist for the Literary Review‘s annual Bad Sex in Literature Award has been released.

You can read the complete shortlist below–it includes Lee Child, Haruki Murakami and James Frey. This year the Literary Review has been active on Twitter, leading the Bad Sex Award hashtag on Twitter. Rowan Somerville won the award last year.

Literary Review has been tweeting bad sex passages online, including this scene from King’s 11-22-63: “Her head bonked on the door. ‘Ouch,’ I said. ‘Are you all right?’” (Via Huffington Post)

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Novelist James Frey will return to Oprah Winfrey‘s television show for the first time since she criticized him onstage for fabrications in his memoir, A Million Little Pieces.

Frey (pictured, via) has just self-published his new novel, The Final Testament of the Holy Bible.

The NY Post has the scoop from an anonymous source: “Oprah apologized to James a couple of years ago, and he appreciated it. So he agreed to go back on her show and talk about everything that’s happened over the last five years.”

Joining a long line of controversial writers and artists, James Frey will self-publish The Final Testament of the Holy Bible on Good Friday (April 22)–a “radical book” about a gritty Messiah.

The book will add a new Testament to the Bible, telling the story of a Messiah born in the Bronx. In an unusual partnership, art gallery owner Larry Gagosian will print 11,000  copies of the book and Frey (pictured, via) will sell the book online as well. Frey has made headlines all year with his fiction factory and the YA novel he co-wrote, I Am Number Four.

Here’s more from the New York Post: “His Messiah, Ben Jones, starts off as a lonely alcoholic bachelor living in a filthy apartment. He survives a horrific work accident, but strange things then happen that lead to him being recognized as the Messiah. Ben also smokes pot, has sex with a prostitute and makes out with men.” (Via Publishers Lunch)

How do you photograph an imaginary author?

Novelist James Frey and Jobie Hughes co-wrote I Am Number Four under the pseudonym of “Pittacus Lore.” The author photo for the imaginary author of the YA book is pictured above (via Howard Huang)–click to enlarge. What do you think of Frey’s first offering from his fiction factory?

Here’s more from the official site: “I am Pittacus Lore. I am from the Planet Lorien, three hundred million miles away. I am one of ten Elders who lived on our planet. I am ten thousand years old. Everyone on Lorien was gifted. We are incredibly strong, incredibly fast, and we are born with powers called legacies. Despite our powers, the Elders, responsible for the defense of our planet, failed.”

What literary adaptations are you looking forward to this winter? Here is a round-up of five upcoming literary movies.

In the video embedded above, you can watch the trailer for an upcoming adaptation of Mordecai Richler‘s novel, Barney’s Version. Set for January 14th release, the film stars Paul Giamatti.

On January 15th, comedian Seth Rogen and Asian pop star Jay Chou team-up for the comic book adaptation, The Green Hornet.

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Writer James Frey has launched  Full Fathom Five, a company focused on producing commercial young adult novels co-written with a team of aspiring writers. A New York magazine feature explored the fiction factory, and one writer declared:  “It’s a crappy deal but a great opportunity.”

Frey introduced Full Fathom Five at a Columbia University MFA seminar. Suzanne Mozes, one of the nine Columbia students present at Frey’s talk, wrote about the experience for the magazine. In an interview, Frey once compared the operation to Andy Warhol’s Factory.

Here’s more about the company’s contract: “In exchange for delivering a finished book within a set number of months, the writer would receive $250 (some contracts allowed for another $250 upon completion), along with a percentage of all revenue generated by the project, including television, film, and merchandise rights—30 percent if the idea was originally Frey’s, 40 percent if it was originally the writer’s.”

Frey has already achieved successes with writer Jobie Hughes, another Columbia MFA student. The pair co-wrote the science fiction book, I Am Number Four, under the Pittacus Lore pseudonym. The book trailer is embedded above.

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Paramount bought the rights to the is the first book of the upcoming Gideon Crew series written by bestselling authors Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Grand Central Publishing will release the first novel of the series, Gideon’s Sword, in February.

Variety has the scoop: “In what’s said to be a seven-figure deal, Paramount has picked up Gideon’s Sword, optioning the upcoming novel for Michael Bay to produce through Bay Films.” One year ago, Bay bought the rights James Frey‘s upcoming YA novel, I Am Number Four.

Here’s more about the Preston & Child partnership (pictured, via kramerimages): “In the early 1990s Preston and Child teamed up to write suspense novels; Relic was the first, followed by several others, including Riptide and Thunderhead. Relic was released as a motion picture by Paramount in 1997. Other films are under development at Hollywood studios. Preston and Child live 500 miles apart and write their books together via telephone, fax, and the Internet.”

As rumors swirled last week that Oprah Winfrey may start a book club on her new cable network, Kitty Kelley (pictured) revealed some behind-the-scenes drama at the book club in her unauthorized biography of Winfrey.

Kelley’s 544-page biography comes out tomorrow. GalleyCat picked out a few choice passages about the book club so you can know what to expect. For instance, the book spends pages analyzing James Frey‘s appearance on Winfrey’s show.

Frey had been a book club pick, but once he was exposed for fabricating portions of his memoir, Winfrey roasted him on national television. According to the biography, Winfrey apologized to the author in the green room after her televised rebuke. Here’s a quote: “The New York Times and The Washington Post wouldn’t let it go. We had to stop it. I’m so sorry, but they were investigating us. And we just couldn’t have that,” Winfrey reportedly told Frey.

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Last week the design studio Coudal Partners sponsored a booking bands contest urging readers to create mash-ups of band names and book titles.

While the winners were chosen randomly, the sprawling list of submissions contains some fabulous wordplay. Among GalleyCat’s favorites were: the James Frey-inspired “My Friend Leonard Cohen,” the heavy-metal inspired “The Great White Gatsby,” and the art-rock and film novelization mash-up, “Last Yo La Tengo In Paris.”

Here’s one of the winners: “Michelle [wins with] Fleetwood Macbeth. I was happy to see Michelle’s name come up, she was among the most fervent submitters. For her troubles, she gets the Arden Shakespeare edition of Macbeth, and while I personally prefer the Peter-Green-era “Green Manalishi” Fleetwood Mac, I’ll spare Michelle and send her the Enhanced CD of their classic Rumours.” (Via.)