Winner of the Nonfiction Discovery Prize from the Writers’ League of Texas, a bronze medalist for the Independent Publisher Book Award in Creative Nonfiction, and a finalist for the Foreword INDIE Book of the Year in Autobiography and Memoir In this memoir of faith and faltering, musician Cameron Dezen Hammon, a Jew-ish New Yorker, finds herself searching for love, meaning―a sign. She’s led to Coney Island, where during a lightning storm, she is baptized in the murky waters of the Atlantic by a group of ragtag converts. After years of trying to make a name for herself as an artist, she follows her boyfriend and new God to Houston, Texas, the heart of American evangelical subculture. Her job at a suburban megachurch there has her performing on stage before crowds, awash in lights and smoke, yet grappling with outdated gender expectations― look pretty but not too pretty, young but not too young ―and ultimately her identity as both a believer and feminist. This Is My Body weaves her zealous conversion with the search for a more progressive and fluid theology, the endurance of marriage with an unexpected obsession that threatens to upend her carefully constructed life. From speaking in tongues to street preaching, from biblically sanctioned discrimination to sexual assault, she invites readers inside her tender and harrowing journey. Part inspiring spiritual memoir, part incisive cultural critique, her story of finding and losing faith is ultimately one of rebuilding a truer, braver self. Nonfiction Discovery Prize Winner, Writers’ League of Texas Book Awards Bronze medalist for the 2020 Independent Publisher Book Awards in Creative Nonfiction Finalist for the 2019 Foreword INDIE Book of the Year Award in Autobiography and Memoi One of five great indie press books from 2019, Book Riot One of the Rumpus’s best books of 2019 Recommended by Brené Brown in her 2019 roundup of Fall Book Love Recommended in the 2019 Holiday Gift Book Guide, Longreads “With a rare combination of candor and grace, the author exposes some of evangelicalism’s frailties without disparaging or dismissing those who are still believers, making her narrative accessible to a wide audience. . . . A generous and unflinchingly brave memoir about faith, feminism, and freedom.” ―Kirkus “Hammon’s engrossing debut . . . will stun and move both Christian and general readers alike.” ―Publishers Weekly “A moving, valuable look at the social structures of evangelical Christianity, the treatment of women artists, and the challenge of remaining present in a marriage. . . . Stories from her career are fascinating and touching, and they expose infuriating sexism.” ―Foreword “[The] misogyny―in churches that allow women to ‘speak’ but not ‘preach’―should not come as a surprise to readers, but the particularities of Hammon’s experience bring the effect of these slights, big and small, to life. . . . Her strikingly contemporary reflections about her treatment in conservative churches . . . make her story a salient one for this particular moment, in the wake of the #MeToo Movement.” ―Martha Park, The Millions “As a veteran songwriter, her prose has the direct punch of a well-written lyric but is often capable of flights of poetry.” ―Ben Steelman, Wilmington Star News “A hauntingly reflective, philosophical, and spectacular memoir . . . The world she inhabited, the casual manner in which she was expected to go along with the customs and norm of the church life―including the minimizing of women, the question of equal pay, the automatic reverence for the church leaders―gives us a deep insight into a world not familiar to those outside of it.” ―Madhushree Ghosh, The Rumpus “Hammon is devastatingly aware of how we can spiritualize grief, loss, and loneliness as easily as we sexualize them. . . . [Her] story is a hard spiritual coming-of-age lesson in which many will see their own experiences of heartbreak―both religious and romantic―reflected.” ―Jessica Mesman, Image “Hammon’s book is a beautifully written account of how difficult it is to be an ambitious woman and have a career in the church. It’s a powerful story of struggling to keep her faith alive, keep her marriage on solid ground, and stay true to her ideals and to herself.” ―Rebecca Hussey, Book Riot “ This Is My Body reflects on the painful contradictions of harboring deep Evangelical faith in a female body.” ― Longreads “Her work demands that we deeply reflect on our complacency―and more frighteningly, our inadvertent participation―in all matters of injustice.” ―America Magazine “This is not a niche issue: A quarter of Americans identify as evangelical Christians, and the church has significant political clout. For evangelical Christians who, like the author, struggle to be both believers and feminists, Dezen Hammon’s story offers hope and validation. For those outside the church, the book is an edifying behind-the-scenes tour.” ―Robyn Ross, Texas Observer “As Hammon pursues the work