SANDERIA FAYE: Yes, I live in the Art District near downtown and Deep Ellum. It is a perfect place to live for a writer. I moved to Texas to work as an executive in sales and marketing and corporate giving for a major retail and wholesale company.

Congratulations on Mourner’s Bench, which Dennis Lehane described as a stunning debut. For our readers not familiar with your book, will you describe it for them?

Thank you. I was honored for him to write a blurb for my novel. I admire him as a writer and teacher.

Mourner’s Bench is the story of remarkable women who were among the most brave and persistent leaders in the Arkansas Delta during the tumultuous Civil Rights Movement.

At the First Baptist Church of Maeby, Arkansas, the sins of the child belonged to the parents until the child turned thirteen. Sarah Jones was only eight years old in the summer of 1964, but with her mother Esther Mae on eight prayer lists and flipping around town with the generally mistrusted civil rights organizers, Sarah believed it was time to get baptized and take responsibility for her own sins. That would mean sitting on the mourner’s bench come revival, waiting for her sign, and then testifying in front of the whole church. But first, Sarah would need to navigate the growing tensions of small-town Arkansas in the 1960s. Both smarter and more serious than her years (a “fifty-year-old mind in an eight-year-old body,” according to Esther), Sarah was torn between the traditions, religion, and work ethic of her community and the progressive civil rights and feminist politics of her mother, who had recently returned from art school in Chicago. When organizers from the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) came to town just as the revival was beginning, Sarah couldn’t help but be caught up in the turmoil. Most folks just wanted to keep the peace, and Reverend Jefferson called the SNCC organizers “the evil among us.” But her mother, along with local civil rights activist Carrie Dilworth, the SNCC organizers, Daisy Bates, attorney John Walker, and indeed most of the country, seemed determined to push Maeby toward integration. With characters as vibrant and evocative as their setting, Mourner’s Bench is the story of a young girl coming to terms with religion, racism, and feminism while also navigating the terrain of early adolescence and trying to settle into her place in her family and community.

Mourner's Bench portrays real-life historical Arkansas individuals whose participation was vital to the march to freedom. The novel explains the conflict between rural southern church members and African American women who took leadership positions in the movement. It was important for me as a native of the region where the novel is based to accurately portray Arkansas Delta women and children who challenged societies’ norms to improve life for future generations.

1964 was an interesting year. In some ways—much of the abject cruelty of the fight for civil rights was largely over—but there was a sublimated prejudice and segregation that was just as distinct even if it was more subtle. What made you pick 1964 as the place to start the story?

The Student Non-Violent Coordinating organizers arrived in the Arkansas delta during the summer of 1964. Like my fictional account in my novel, the history of the Civil Rights Movement in Arkansas is basically an untold story. Although subtle, I believe this period in history is of significant importance to Arkansas and US.

I love the voice of young Sarah Jones. Did someone inspire her creation, or is she a composite?

Her voice is a composite inspired by the young girls who worked tirelessly and boldly with their parents and alone, most times not totally understanding the meaning of the civil rights movement, but they bravely taught adults about voter registration and desegregation. It is documented that throughout the South, the responsibility of desegregation, especially of schools were placed on the shoulders of young girls.

What inspired you to write this story?

Because the history of the people in this story, especially the historical figure, may not have ever been told if I hadn’t chosen to write it. From the beginning, I became so absorbed with characters. They came alive on the page, and insisted that I tell their story.

Have you always written?

I wrote little stories when I was very young and was encouraged by my high school English teacher to study creative writing in college. My family wasn’t about to have me spend four years at a university learning to write. I believed them and ended up with a B.S. in accounting. Later, an editor for a newspaper overheard my conversation about sports, and was so impressed with my knowledge that she hired me as a freelance feature sports writer. But it was not until the late nineties, when talk show host Oprah Winfrey encouraged people to follow their passion that I got serious about it. I had know idea what I was passionate about, so I mimicked Oprah as a way to figure it out. She ran a half-marathon; later I ran the same one. She then trained and ran a marathon, and so did I, but I still felt empty inside until one day my friend said “I believe it’s writing.” Then I remembered how excited I was when my high school teacher had suggested I study creative writing, and how disappointed I was when my family didn’t agree with her. I believe not writing was why I felt the empty inside (I feel it now when I’ve gone too many days without writing). A few months later, I wrote my first thirty pages, which was required for the admissions application to Arizona State University, and now I’m here.

What writers did you grow up reading?

My English teacher recognized that I loved to read, so she gave me books that were not in our library that were mostly southern writers: Maya Angelou, Harper Lee, Mark Twain, Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison, and James Baldwin, to name a few. Whenever I finished a novel, she would sneak and put another one under my schoolbook. It was our little secret. I also loved romance novels by authors who included history and train travel in their works, like Danielle Steel.

What Texas writers do you enjoy reading?

Ben Fountain, Latoya Watkins, Greg Brownderville, Joe Milazzo, Raquel Ravera, Shay Youngblood, and David Haynes, to name a few.

What advice would you give fellow writers?

Keep writing and read everybody. Don’t doubt yourself or your talent. Don’t ever give up. Focus more on writing and not on publishing until you’re ready.

What’s next in your writing career?

I’m working on a couple of projects, but the one that has most of my attention is set in Napoleon, Arkansas, a town that Mark Twain writes about in him memoir. The town vanished or was washed away during the late 1800s. My interest is in Lilith, a girl who mistakenly wasn’t there when the tragedy happened.

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Praise for Sanderia Faye's MOURNER'S BENCH

“Mourner’s Bench takes us to a significant social crossroads yet avoids racial polarization through characters of equal complexity, with flaws and fine points and all-too-human motivations. All told, the novel offers a sure sense of its place and people, and a closer look at those who truly lived through the civil rights movement—a chapter in American history that still seems to be writing itself.” —Foreword Reviews

“[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.” —Kirkus

“[T]he book succeeds at dramatizing an essential era in American history and is a welcome addition to civil rights literature.” — Michael Cart, Booklist

“Faye’s writing is detailed and descriptive, depicting moments that richly capture life in a small segregated and impoverished town. … Mourner’s Bench is a well-researched and commendable debut effort that expands and complicates the body of literature written about the Civil Rights movement by asking readers to lend equal consideration and weight to the roles age, gender, and religion played.” —The Rumpus

“With Mourner’s Bench, Sanderia Faye announces herself as a bold, at times intoxicating, original voice in American fiction. This is a stunning debut.” —Dennis Lehane, author of Gone Baby Gone, Mystic River, and Shutter Island

“Chapter by chapter, without ever seeming to struggle, Mourner’s Bench completely immerses us in small-town 1960’s Arkansas, a time and place of racial turmoil and social conflict that very much speaks to our own. . . . . Reading [the] 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

“Brilliantly written, Mourner’s Bench takes the reader back to 1960s small-town Arkansas and tells a story about the public and private ways that black and white people worked for or resisted change. A powerful, brilliant book.” —Vivienne Schiffer, author of Camp Nine

“Faye’s clear-eyed yet tender vision imbues this story of our difficult past with ringing hope for the future. This is a novel that lingers in your spirit like the bittersweet chords of a favorite song.” —Tayari Jones, author of Silver Sparrow and Leaving Atlanta

“A quiet tour de force, a story of innocence and coming of age, beautifully told and brimming with life.” —Rosalyn Story, author of Wading Home and More Than You Know

“This compelling novel will appeal to literary enthusiasts and history buffs alike.” —Jennifer Jensen Wallach, coeditor of Arsnick: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Arkansas