“With Mourner’s Bench, Sanderia Faye announces herself as a bold, at times intoxicating, original voice in American fiction. This is a stunning début.”
Dennis Lehane, author of Gone Baby Gone, Mystic River, & Shutter Island
“Reading [this] story, no matter what you believe history might have taught us since, you feel as if the questions of racial justice are not only unresolved but barely yet asked.”
Kevin Brockmeier, author of The Brief History of the Dead
—Vivienne Schiffer, Camp Nine: A Novel
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sanderia Faye serves on the faculty at Southern Methodist University, is an instructor at the 2017 Desert Nights Rising Stars Conference at Arizona State University, and a professional speaker and activist. Her novel, Mourner’s Bench, is the winner of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in debut fiction and The Philosophical Society of Texas
Award of Merit for fiction. She is co-founder and a fellow at Kimbilio Center for Fiction, and her work has appeared in the anthology Arsnick: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Arkansas. Faye moderated the grassroots panel for the
Arkansas Civil Rights Symposium during the Freedom Riders 50th Anniversary and is coordinating the first AWP African Diaspora Caucus.
Her work received “Best Of” honors at the 2011 Eckerd College Writers’ Conference, Co-Directors Dennis Lehane and Sterling Watson, where her winning excerpt from the novel was published in SABAL Literary Journal. She received grants and scholarships offers from Hurston/Wright Writers Conference, Eckerd College Writers’ in Paradise Conference, Callaloo Writers Workshop, and Vermont, Writers Studio. She attended The Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow and Martha’s Vineyard Writers Residency.
She holds an MFA from Arizona State University, a MA from the University of Texas at Dallas, a BS in Accounting from the University of Arkansas. She is currently a PhD student in English at the University of North Texas.
NEWS
READING: BRAZOS BOOKSTORE
https://www.facebook.com/waynard.dale.9/videos/564975033654148/?pnref=story
BOOK REVIEW: THE RUMPUS
As one whose loyalties and sympathies lie with two warring groups, Sarah’s narration reflects her struggle to fuse her appreciation for her small-town life and her love of both family and church with her growing understanding of justice and equality and her burgeoning respect for her mother’s efforts. The writing is at its strongest when Sarah adopts a communal voice:
INTERVIEW: TALKING WRITING
Taking Writing is a nonprofit literary site that features essays, first-person journalism, and poetry. In July 2015, Sanderia Faye was interviewed by Imaani Cain, Editorial Assistant, Talking Writing. Below is the transcript from the interview. Clear here to view the...
INTERVIEW: CREATIVE DISTRUBANCE – WITHIN THE MARGINS
Creative Disturbance is an international, multilingual network and podcast platform supporting collaboration among the arts, sciences, and new technologies communities. Poe Johnson, an expert in Aesthetic Studies at Creative Disturbance, talks to Sanderia Faye about...
NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO KUAR’s READER’S REVIEW
In partnership with the Central Arkansas Library System, KUAR introduces community conversations for book lovers, KUAR's Readers Review. Sanderia Faye visited the University of Arkansas Little Rock Institute on Race and Ethnicity. She performed a reading and answered...
READING: WILD DETECTIVES BOOKSTORE
Introduction by Greg Brownderville https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qwkv3MkjF18&feature=em-subs_digest-g
READING: FORTWORTH MAGAZINE – WILDCATTERS TELLING STORIES
Among several real historical figures depicted in Mourner’s Bench are Daisy Bates, a civil rights activist who led the “Little Rock Nine” in the integration of Little Rock Central High School; John Walker, a civil rights lawyer; and Carrie Dilworth, who was an officer for the racial egalitarian Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union in the 1930s.
INTERVIEW: UNIVERSITY OF DALLAS – THE MERCURY
Critics and readers have praised “Mourner’s Bench,” citing its realistic portrayal of the events and people of the time. Michael Cart of Booklist hailed the novel for “successfully dramatizing an essential era in American history.” Dennis Lehane, author of “Shutter Island,” lauded the novel as “a stunning debut.”
REVIEW: FOREWORD REVIEWS
An inspiring mother-daughter tale set in the Civil Rights era Deep South, with religious overtones and headstrong characters.
REVIEW: KIRKUS
An astute coming-of-age tale set against an all-too-relevant background.
What are people saying about Mourner’s Bench?…
"Please check out Sanderia Faye's new novel, Mourner's Bench.It inspired, shook and awed me. So much funk in here!" -- Kiese Laymon author of Long Division "One of the best reads for 2015!!!" -- Richard Johnson, former defensive end, Houston Oilers “[A]n absorbing...
INTERVIEW: ROLLING OUT
Sanderia Faye’s Mourner’s Bench has received praise ranging from “With Mourner’s Bench, Sanderia Faye announces herself as a bold, at times intoxicating, original voice in American fiction. This is a stunning debut” (by Dennis Lehane, author of Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone and Shutter Island) to “[A]n absorbing meditation on the meaning of religion in a small town as well as a keen-eyed perspective on the way one African-American community encountered the civil rights movement. An astute coming-of-age tale set against an all-too-relevant background” (by Kirkus Review). Mourner’s Bench explores religion, civil rights, voting rights, feminism and family dynamics.
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CONTACT SANDERIA FAYE
