Erotic writer retaining kiss and hug for former President (5)
I believe the answer is:
nixon
'former president' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'erotic writer retaining kiss and hug' is the wordplay.
'erotic writer' becomes 'nin' (erotic short story writer Anais Nin).
'retaining' is an insertion indicator (inserted letters are held or retained).
'kiss' becomes 'x' (X can represent a kiss).
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'hug' becomes 'o' (O can represent a hug in written messages).
'x'+'o'='xo'
'nin' going around 'xo' is 'NIXON'.
'for' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for nixon that I've seen before include "President re-elected in 1972" , "See 16 Down" , "US president, d.1994" , "Ex-US president" , "Watergate was his downfall" .)