Mourner's Bench

Published in 2015 by the University of Arkansas Press, Mourner’s Bench is the debut novel of Gould (Lincoln County) native Sanderia Faye. Set in 1960s Arkansas, it focuses on themes of race, class, religion, and gender and explores what it means to carve out a place within one’s community. The author pulls from her own experience of growing up in a small rural prison town, always closely observing the conversations of the adults in her life.  

In Mourner’s Bench, the Jones family lives in the small fictional community of Maeby, Arkansas. The African American residents could hold on to a semblance of peace as long as they did not go against social expectations set by the white residents and employers. The book explores the internal struggles and awakenings that took place during a year of reckoning. 

The book follows eight-year-old Sarah Jones, who cannot wait to “get her religion” and be baptized at the First Baptist Church of Maeby. However, children must be thirteen before they can choose to be baptized themselves; otherwise, they must receive permission from a parent. Sarah takes a harsh view of her mother Ester, whom she sees as defying the rule of their elders—Muhdea and Granny—to stir up trouble with an activist from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Her mother leaves the home to chase her dreams as an artist and activist, and Sarah’s uncle Robert has also rejected the religious pressure of his mother and grandmother and relocated to Little Rock (Pulaski County). Sarah is left behind to bear the brunt of the elders’ dissatisfaction.  

Feeling as though her soul would be doomed for the sins of her mother, Sarah does everything she can to convince Ester that baptism is the right thing do. Along the way, Sarah begins taking classes at the new Freedom School, where she learns the importance of civil disobedience, the horrors of police brutality, and strategies for social disruption. She has interactions with lawyer John Walker and activists Daisy Bates and Carrie Dilworth that shape the trajectory of her young life as she prepares for the fight toward integration. 

Critics praised Mourner’s Bench’s immersive experience in small-town 1960s Arkansas. Noted author Tayari Jones complimented Faye’s vision, which she said “imbues this story of our difficult past with ringing hope for the future.” The Rumpus described Mourner’s Bench as a “well-researched and commendable debut effort” that “expands and complicates” the narrative surrounding the civil rights movement by challenging readers to weigh different roles such as age, gender, and religion. Meg Nola of Foreword Reviews referred to the time and place of the book’s setting as “a chapter in American history that still seems to be writing itself.” 

Mourner’s Bench was the winner of the Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy Award in debut fiction, as well as the Philosophical Society of Texas Award of Merit for fiction.  

Faye serves as the executive director of the Dallas Literary Festival and co-chair of Pen America’s Dallas, Texas, chapter. She is also the founding host of the popular reading series LitNight and co-founder of Kimbilio Center for Fiction. 

For additional information:
Faye, Sanderia. Mourner’s Bench. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2015. 

Sanderia Faye. https://sanderiafaye.com/ (accessed December 5, 2024).  

Shandrea Murphy-Washington
Little Rock, Arkansas