Author Tom Wolfe says the sex scenes in his novel I am Charlotte Simmons – which won him a prize for bad writing – were meant to be ironic.

Last week, Wolfe was awarded the Literary Review's annual Bad Sex award.

Tom Wolfe (AP photo)
Tom Wolfe (AP photo)

The purpose of the award is to "draw attention to the crude, tasteless, often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel."

In giving the prize, the judges said the descriptions of sex in Wolfe's book are ghastly, inept and unrealistic.

But Wolfe says he was very deliberate when he wrote the scenes.

"Slither slither slither slither went the tongue," starts one, which describes the ingénue protagonist's first sexual encounter.

"But the hand, that was what she tried to concentrate on, the hand, since it has the entire terrain of her torso to explore and not just the otorhinolaryngological caverns – oh God, it was not just at the border where the flesh of the breast joins the pectoral sheath of the chest – no, the hand was cupping her entire right – Now!"

Wolfe defended his writing in an interview on Monday, saying he used words like "otorhinolaryngological" – which refers to the ears, nose and throat – on purpose, so the sex scenes would not be erotic.

The novel, which is almost 700 pages long, takes place at the fictional Dupont University in Pennsylvania.

Wolfe also disputed media reports saying that he declined to pick up the Bad Sex award in person.

He said he has yet to receive an invitation from the Literary Review, whose judges he called out of touch.