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.

Matilda Bickers is an artist and writer originally from Boston’s South End. Her experience in sex work, which she entered at age 18, has enabled her to focus on art and activism and the vital intersection of the two. She has performed her written work at the Radar Reading Series in San Francisco, and with Sister Spit in Portland, OR. Witnessing the experiences of other people faced with only terrible options in a world uninterested in their success or even survival, Bickers has worked to create spaces to amplify and showcase their creative work, from Working It, a quarterly zine of sex worker art and writing, to the annual Portland Sex Worker Art Show. Bickers is currently writing and illustrating Aspiration Risk, a graphic novel about her ongoing attempt to leave the sex trades for a career in healthcare, and the painful parallels between the two industries.

peech breshears is a writer living in Kansas. She is married and leases her home from one Havanese dog named Wallace who takes his rent in kibble and biscuits. She loves Jesus and people. Currently pursuing a master’s in English at Wichita State University, she’ll be glad to meet you and you can reach out to her for friendships, jobs, and writing opportunities by following her @_peech on Instagram.

Janis Luna (she/they) is a stripper forced into early retirement by COVID-19. She now works as a freelance writer and sex-worker-affirming therapist, and she misses the club (but mostly the dressing room) every day. She can be found at @janis_therapy on IG and www.janistherapy.com.