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For more than 10 years, editor Annie Oakley has been putting on the Sex Workers' Art Show -- a national touring exhibition of performances and readings from people in the sex industry. She books gigs at dissimilar venues like Duke University and Chicago's Funky Buddha Lounge, and everything from 1920s-style burlesque shows to academic discussions of pornography is fair game. It's a solid program, and it's to Oakley's credit that she's getting people -- all types of people -- talking about the hush-hush issue of paying for sex. That she makes this potentially depressing topic entertaining and informative is even more impressive.

Her book, Working Sex, too, is a hodgepodge. The collection is memoir-heavy, but also includes poetry, song lyrics, interviews, a short play and an advice column-like piece. Prostitutes, porn stars, strippers and other sex workers contribute. Unfortunately, this mixed bag approach has one flaw: Some contributors can't write.

"Porn Piece" by porn star Bruce LaBruce feels like a far too wordy dissertation proposal. Here is a typical line: "Back in the last decade, when gender studies and postmodern courses on desire introduced academics to the milieux of sex trade workers and pornographers, there was a tendency to overvalue these phenomena and to confer iconic status on their denizens." That red flag of a sentence should've made Oakley scratch her head, turn politely to LaBruce and say, "Okay, uh, but can you shorten it up a bit?" Michelle Tea's whorehouse-set "The Ballad of Burt Starr" bashes readers over the head with irony. "Lesbians should not be allowed to work there! That's unethical!" she writes. The effect is more cringe-inducing than anything.

Working Sex isn't without its moments, however. Kirk Read -- a contributor who displays a bona fide confidence in his work -- writes a very entertaining warning against getting high before having sex with a john. The drunken conversation between a 60-something tranny and a young prostitute in "Bella" is authentic, even sweet.

It's hard to rag on a project that tries humanizing people who truly need it, especially one this breezy -- some chapters are barely two pages. Still, Working Sex feels like an album with Big Themes that has three good tracks and a bunch of filler.