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Things get hot and steamy in our latest Literary Smackdown.  The Next Chapter and Canada Writes have brought together Russell Smith and Lynn Coady to debate a great literary question: when the heat rises between two characters, is it better to write about their sexual encounter or leave it unwritten?

 

There's lots of sexual tension and self-described 'horniness' in Lynn Coady's books, but she shies away from graphic descriptions of sex, preferring to leave the spicy details to the reader's imagination.  Her most recent novel is The Antagonist.  Russell Smith has gotten over his squeamishness about writing sex scenes and now they're a central part of his novels.  He says "I couldn't cut sex out of my novels any more than I could cut all the eating scenes out of there.  They're equally important."  Russell's latest novel is Girl Crazy.

 

So, is it better to write about sex, or not?  And, if you're going to take a stab at it, is there a way to write about sex without resorting to euphemisms and purple prose?

 

Press play on the player above to hear Russell Smith and Lynn Coady duke it out.  Click here to read their essays on the Canada Writes website.