Professor named finalist for Lambda Literary Award
As an infant, Chris Belcher, assistant professor of writing and gender and sexuality studies at the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Science, was celebrated by her Appalachian town as the “prettiest baby” after winning a beauty pageant, only to be ostracized when she came out as queer. This inspired her memoir, “Pretty Baby”, which covers Belcher’s childhood in Appalachia and her experience trying to get her PhD while working as a sex worker– a profession she concealed from her department. In this regard, she describes the memoir as “her second coming out.”
Belcher was casually scrolling through her emails when she learned her memoir, “Pretty Baby,” had been nominated for the 2023 Lambda Literary Award in the lesbian memoir category through a congratulatory email from her publishing team, a group of women with whom she’s worked for the past two years.
“I am thrilled that ‘Pretty Baby’ was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award … It was incredibly exciting for me to be recognized in that particular way,” Belcher said. “When my team who published the book asked what would be the one goal that you could see for this book, I said winning a Lambda Literary Award in lesbian memoir.”
Belcher said her excitement came not only from the prestige of the award, but because of her years of involvement with Lambda Literary, an organization of writers and editors that has celebrated and promoted LGBTQIA+ books since 1987. Belcher has assisted with organizing readings for “Lit Fest,” a week-long celebration of LGBTQIA+ writers, and bringing together sex working writers for events.
“It’s wonderful to be nominated. The other writers who are nominated alongside me have all written really fantastic books,” she said. “Being included in that lineup is a real honor.”
Dornsife Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies Chair Karen Tongson said the nomination was exciting news, but also expected given the quality of “Pretty Baby.”
“It was a very compelling book, and I can see why the story was so relatable to so many different people,” Tongson said.
Tongson said students found the memoir enjoyable as well: Undergraduate students in gender and sexuality studies chose “Pretty Baby” as one of their summer book club reads in 2022. She said the students discussed Belcher’s memoir at the start of Fall 2022 and seemed to resonate with the book’s themes of introspection.
“People related to the journey that is documented in ‘Pretty Baby,’ one to self discovery, but also to understanding how where we come from is such an integral part of who we end up becoming,” she said. “That’s part of the appeal of the book.”
Tongson said she was familiar with several of the authors who were nominated for the award, and that Belcher was part of a truly impressive lineup.
“From all the hundreds of books that come out in these categories, it is a real honor for [Belcher] to receive this nomination,” Tongson said. “We’re all pulling for her.”
Director of the Dornsife Writing Program Norah Ashe also said she was happy that Belcher’s work was nominated, particularly because of its importance in the current political climate.
“I’m really, really delighted that she is being recognized for her work, because it’s important work,” she said. “This is a moment where [LGBTQIA+] voices are really, really, really important to support and bring out … Shining a light on how we narrativize sex work, and the roles that they play is really important right now.”
Ashe said Belcher’s influence in the literary sphere did not end at “Pretty Baby” — she also edited the anthology “We Too: Essays on Sex Work and Survival.”
“She is really becoming a very important voice in the community and in academia in terms of how we are approaching these discussions” Ashe said.
In addition to the work “Pretty Baby” does to destigmatize sex work, Belcher said she was particularly proud of being able to highlight the LGBTQIA+ people from her childhood in the memoir. Given that “being gay in Appalachia brought with it a lot of homophobia,” Belcher said, she was proud to shed light on the positive LGBTQIA+ role models she had in West Virginia, including a “butch” bus driver and LGBTQIA+ neighbor.
“Being gay in West Virginia brought with it a lot of homophobia, a lot of difficulty,” she said. “What my book does really well is focus on a lot of the queer people who did populate my early life … For me, those sections of the book where I’m really able to talk about these queer folks who were part of my life when I was a kid or when I was closeted are something I really want to celebrate.”
Normalizing the LGBTQIA+ community was a major part of Belcher’s mission when writing her memoir, a theme that aligns closely with Lambda Literary’s values — which Belcher said made the nomination even more special.
“A big political investment for me is destigmatizing sex work and also destigmatizing queerness,” she said. “That was always the goal of the project … As an organization, why Lambda Literary is so important is that its mission is also to celebrate queer writers and to destigmatize queer lives, and so [this nomination] really is a wonderful endpoint [for] the journey of the book.”
The Lammy winners will be announced June 9 in its first in-person award ceremony since 2019. The weekend will be an exciting one for Belcher, as she hopes to get tattooed by Mars Hobrecker — a highly selective queer artist based in New York — the day before the ceremony. She’ll also attend Dyke Day L.A. the following day.
If readers could only take away one thing from the memoir, Belcher said she hopes it’s that marginalized communities must use their voices to enact change.
“If you’re part of a marginalized group or the way that you are in the world is stigmatized, you shouldn’t feel like there’s nothing you can do about it,” she said. “Don’t let your voice be silenced either by fear or what people will think in your own community, or fear of the majority … If you get to a place where you can use your voice, I would say use your voice.”