‘Lauren Foley’s debut Polluted Sex (Influx Press) … an explicit, raw, and at times surreal portrait of girl and womanhood, discovered through sexual and bodily adventure and misadventure. … Religion, desire and sin are laid bare and made strange in Foley’s succulent language that drips from the page like an overripe fruit, sweet but spoiling at the same time.’
–Books Ireland
‘With her form-bending debut collection, Polluted Sex, Irish/Australian Lauren Foley joins a cohort of contemporary authors — including Cathy Sweeney, Claire-Louise Bennett, Eimear McBride — whose work seems dissatisfied with narrative conventions. What happens when we blow them open? … Polluted Sex alternately challenges, interests, confuses, humours, shocks, and engages its reader. What art ought to do.’
—Irish Independent
‘Like Kathy Acker after a glut of whiskeys, these stories are seductive, hilarious, rejuvenating and intimate.
Lauren Foley’s characters have barbarous tongues and know how to use them. Lacerating and sexy, the heat sears off (and through) the pages. A scorching portrait of the female psyche. Uncompromising and raw. A new voice in Irish fiction.’
—June Caldwell
‘Superb, subversive stories from Lauren Foley. Formally experimental—mini plays, time-stamped fragments, prose-as-prayer—work that’s political, comic and genuinely original.’
—Sinéad Gleeson
‘Lauren Foley is a gifted, fearless writer. These vivid, dynamic stories range from the visceral to the experimental with moments of intense, expressive lyricism.’
—Lia Mills
‘Short stories filled with darkness and moments of pure gold.’
—Cristín Leach
‘In this startling, disarming debut collection of stories, Lauren Foley dismantles our preconceived ideas of body autonomy, femininity, and sexual desire. Often challenging, and always gripping, Polluted Sex introduces us to characters we ordinarily think of as living on the fringes of society, repositioning them as central societal forces. Polluted Sex is an unflinching debut, by one of Ireland’s most compelling and emerging voices.’
—October Books
‘Why can’t all books be half this good? Almost every experiment is in service of re-sensitising the reader to the spoken & written word, and the world. It achieves a tactile intimacy on the page, that’s both casual & profound; one I never really knew I was missing. Just mint.’
—Tom Benn
Lauren Foley 