Writing About Sex

Writing about sex can be uniquely powerful — and perilous. A group of novelists, memoirists and poets tell the New York Times about working blue: what novels first inspired them, what nouns they strive to avoid and who they think writes sex best.

From the piece...

RACHEL KUSHNER: I don’t think of sex as any more difficult to write about than any other human behavior. Writers fail or soar at anything. Everyone thinks about sex, engages in it. It’s the secret we all share. Just acknowledging its constant presence in people’s thoughts is a good direction for a novelist. Of the books I like, it could be argued that sex is infused into every cadence, even if never explicitly. And “not explicit” doesn’t mean that the prudish kiss leads to the prissy dissolve, but that characters are motored by desire.