Working It: Sex Workers on the Work of Sex

Fiercely intelligent, fantastically transgressive, Working It is an intimate portrait of the lives of sex workers. A polyphonic story of triumph, survival, and solidarity, this collection showcases the vastly different experiences and interests of those who have traded sex, among them a brothel worker in Australia, First Nation survivors of the Canadian child welfare system, and an Afro Latina single parent raising a radicalized child. Packed with first-person essays, interviews, poetry, drawings, mixed media collage, and photographs Working It honors the complexity of lived experience. Sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hardboiled, these dazzling pieces will go straight to the heart.

“If you ever want to know what is really up, talk to a sex worker. Working It is chock-full of harsh realities, hopeful activism, hot takes, sharp writing, electric intellects, dark humor—all from the culture heroes making their dollars at the intersection of all our country's worst problems. This is true outlaw writing, and the stories inside are of crucial importance for us all.” —Michelle Tea, author of over a dozen books, including Rent Girl, Valencia, and Against Memoir

“A serious, eclectic collection that takes a critical eye to the tricky questions surrounding care and work within our society. The thinkers in the pages of Working It have a lot to teach us about both.” —Rax King, author of Tacky, and co-host of the podcast Low Culture Boil