Book Launch: The Missing Anthology
‘The Missing Anthology’ is a bold, important retelling of sex workers’ stories in their own voices
What happens when sex workers are allowed to tell their own stories? In this new anthology by Project X, sex workers shatter society’s one-dimensional assumptions about them, revealing the rich complexity of their lived experiences.
The Missing Anthology: Stories from Singapore’s Sex Workers features fifteen bold new voices from sex workers, reflecting on their pasts, their struggles and triumphs, and their dreams. From surrealist plays to confessional poetry, fantastic stories to richly-detailed essays, the authors present their narratives through experiments with diverse forms and genres.
“Too often, others try to tell our stories for us — flattening them into stereotypes or sensationalised clichés. But this collection refuses to let those distant assumptions speak,” says Eva Oh, an award-winning dominatrix known as ‘Mistress Eva’. “These are our stories, told in our voices, with all the complexity and richness of lived experience. Reading it was deeply moving, at times heartbreaking, and profoundly real.”
The Missing Anthology is presented by Project X, Singapore’s leading non-profit organisation dedicated to advocating for the rights, health, and safety of individuals in the sex industry. Project X first launched the anthology in 2023 as The Missing Anthology: Jalan Besar Volume, the product of an open call and writing workshops held by Project X and supported by Sing Lit Station’s Jalan Besar Fellowship.
This new edition contains nine new pieces. It is published by Project X and distributed by Faction Press —- an independent publishing house dedicated to Southeast Asian nonfiction.
Visual artist and writer Diana Rahim calls the anthology “a landmark publication that stabs a stiletto heel against the singular story and image of a deliberately misunderstood labour class.” She adds, “The stories of sex workers strain against a society’s ability or inability to accept its own desires and the people who work to fulfil them. This book is as necessary a reading as any about the nation, for behind these stories, the country finds an unwritten one of its own."