“I’m really interested in stories where the sex worker doesn’t die and end up in a garbage bag.” Antonia Crane was one of the women working at the Lusty Lady when they made their historical unionization. Now she has cowritten a script called The Lusty based on her experience. Tina caught up with her during a trip to LA to talk about Westward and their favorite sex work writers.

Antonia Crane is a performer, 2-time Moth Story Slam Winner and writing instructor in Los Angeles. She has written for The New York Times, The Believer, The Toast, Playboy, Cosmopolitan, Salon.com, The Rumpus, Electric Literature, DAME, The Los Angeles Review, Quartz: The Atlantic Media, Medium.com, Buzzfeed and dozens of other places.

Her screenplay “The Lusty” (co-written by Transparent director, writer Silas Howard), based on the true story of the exotic dancer’s labor union, is a recipient of the San Francisco Film Society/Kenneth Rainin Foundation Grant in screenwriting, 2015.

She is at work on an essay collection and a feature film.