Morbid Obsessions

On trans and sex worker bodies and writing fiction from the margins

By Frankie Miren & Alison Rumfitt

With an introduction by Morgan M Page

9781739784959 / PB / £8.99

The histories of the trans and sex worker rights movements are closely intertwined and, particularly in the UK, it’s rare to find a carceral feminist who isn’t also a rabid transphobe. What does it mean to write as part of a community that is under attack? Where, in fiction, is the line between exploring harmful ideology and humanising it?

In Morbid Obsessions Alison Rumfitt and Frankie Miren explore these questions and talk about the crossover in the ways they chose to approach them in their novels Tell Me I’m Worthless (Cipher Press) and The Service (Influx Press), covering the pornographic interest in sex workers and trans women, online violence, moral panic, creative representation, and paying tribute to sex worker and trans activism through fiction.

Frank, funny, and hopeful, and featuring two new stories and an introduction by writer and historian Morgan M. Page, Morbid Obsessions is an urgent and vital conversation about making art as collective struggle.

All proceeds (after production costs) from the sale of this book will be donated to Babeworld, a collective which seeks to create a more representative art world, and will go into direct grants to marginalised artists.

Frankie Miren is a writer, journalist and sex worker activist. She's written for places like the Guardian, Independent, VICE, Buzzfeed and New Socialist. The Service is informed by 25 years dropping in and out of sex work, in various conditions and on several continents. Frankie is part of the English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) and the Sex Workers Advocacy and Resistance Movement (SWARM) and is involved in the fight for decriminalisation.

Alison Rumfitt is a writer and semi-professional trans woman. Her debut pamphlet of poetry, The T(y)ranny, was a critical deconstruction of Margaret Atwood’s work through the lens of a trans woman navigating her own misogynistic dystopia. It was published by Zarf Editions in 2019. Tell Me I’m Worthless is her debut novel. Her work has appeared in countless publications such as SPORAZINE, datableed, The Final Girls, Burning House Press, SOFT CARTEL, Glass Poetry and more. Her poetry was nominated - twice! - for the Rhysling Award in 2018. You can find her on Twitter @hangsawoman and @alison.zone on Instagram. She loves her friends.

Morgan M Page is a writer, historian, and artist based in London, England. She is the creator of One From the Vaults, the podcast that brings you all of the dirt, gossip, and glamour from trans history. With Chase Joynt, she is the co-writer of the feature film Framing Agnes (Sundance, 2022) and the book Boys Don’t Cry (MQUP, 2022). She is a life-long activist for sex workers’ rights.

Babeworld seeks to create a more representative art world through the creation of art, fundraising and creating grants, and facilitation of events - for those who are marginalised in the arts. With an emphasis on collaboration and co-creation, Babeworld’s practice focuses on themes of political and societal identity, specifically disability/access, neurodivergence, sex work and race. Babeworld is led by Ash Williams (she/her) and Ingrid Banerjee Marvin (she/her), with associate artists Gabriella Davies (she/her) and Caitlin Chase (she/her).