Morrissey's debut novel List of the Lost has been short listed for one of the most unwanted accolades in fiction - the Bad Sex Award.

List of the Lost has been nominated for the prize which will be awarded on December 1 this year.

Other books in the running for the prize, which is given by Literary Review, include Before, During, After by Richard Bausch, Book of Numbers by Joshua Cohen, Against Nature by Tomas Espedal, Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff, The Making of Zombie Wars by Aleksandar Hemon, Fear of Dying by Erica Jong and The Martini Shot by George Pelecanos.

Morrissey’s appearance represents the first time an author from the Penguin Classics stable has made it onto the shortlist.

This year’s authors also include a celebrated screenwriter of The Wire, Pelecanos, and a writer well known for her exploration of female desire, Jong.

Michael Ashcroft and Isabel Oakeshott’s Call Me Dave was also considered by judges because of its suggestion that ‘the future PM [David Cameron] inserted a private part of his anatomy into the animal’s mouth’.

However in a statement Literary Review said: "That assertion was so flimsily corroborated as to resemble fiction but, regrettably, the biographers displayed insufficient literary brio to merit serious consideration."

Last year the prize was won by Ben Okri for The Age of Magic

Literary Review said: "The purpose of the prize is to draw attention to poorly written, perfunctory or redundant passages of sexual description in modern fiction, and to discourage them. The prize is not intended to cover pornographic or expressly erotic literature."