Lacey N. Dunham: The Belles

Name: Lacey N. Dunham: The Belles
Start: 2025-09-12T18:00:00-04:00
End: 2025-09-12T19:00:00-04:00
Location: 12 N Market St, Frederick, MD, United States, Maryland 21701

Schedule

Fri Sep 12 2025 at 06:00 pm to 07:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

12 N Market St, Frederick, MD, United States, Maryland 21701 | Frederick, MD

Join us at Curious Iguana from 5:00-7:00 pm on Friday, September 12 for a meet-and-greet with author Lacey N. Dunham as she promotes her debut novel, The Belles. This dark, coming-of-age story centers on an exclusive clique that tests the boundaries in risky ways as they navigate their way through college in the 1950s. Copies of The Belles will be available for purchase at the signing.
This event is free and open to the public. For accessibility requests, email [email protected] at least two (2) weeks prior to the event.
About the book: In this richly atmospheric, dark academia debut novel, a young woman with a secretive past will risk everything—including her life—to fit in.
Belles never tell…
It’s 1951 at the secluded Bellerton College, and Deena Williams is an outsider doing her best to blend in with her wealthy and perfectly groomed peers. Infamous for its strict rules as much as its prestige, attending Bellerton could give Deena the comfortable life she’s always dreamed of.
She quickly forms an alliance with the five other freshmen on her floor, and soon they are singled out by the president’s wife as the most promising girls of their class, who anoints them: The Belles. They walk the college’s halls in menacing unison, matching velvet ribbons in their hair. But no sisterhood comes without secrets, and the Belles are no exception. Playing cruel pranks on their dormitory housemother and embarking on boundary-shattering night games, the Belles test the limits of the campus rules.
But as Deena begins to piece together the sinister history of Bellerton, her own past threatens to come to light, forcing her to make a dangerous choice. A chilling and seductive coming-of-age story, The Belles is an excavation of the dark side of girlhood, the intricacies of privilege, and the unbridled desire to belong at any cost.
About the author: Lacey N. Dunham is the author of The Belles. She has received support from the Elizabeth George Foundation, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the Sewanee Writers Conference as a Tennessee Williams scholar, and Catapult as a merit scholar. Her writing has appeared in Ploughshares, The Kenyon Review, and more. She lives in Washington, DC. Find out more at http://LaceyNDunham.com .