Mourner’s Bench nominated for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award
Special to the News-Times
FAYETTEVILLE – “Mourner’s Bench: A Novel” by Sanderia Faye has been nominated for the prestigious Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, given each year to the best books in Black literature.
“Mourner’s Bench” is a nominee in the debut fiction category, along with Naomi Jackson’s “The Star Side of Bird Hill” and Chigozie Obioma’s “The Fishermen.”
The winner will be announced at an Award Ceremony on Oct. 21.
Past winners include Denise Nicholas, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Kwame Dawes.
The novel, set the in the fictional town of Maeby, Arkansas, tells the story of young Sarah Jones as she navigates the growing tensions of small-town southern life in the 1960s. Both smarter and more serious than her years (a “fifty-year-old mind in an eightyear-old body,” according to her mother), Sarah is torn between the traditions, religion, and work ethic of her community and the progressive civil rights and feminist politics of her mother.
When organizers from the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) come to town, Sarah can’t help but be caught up in the turmoil. Most of her neighbors just want to keep the peace, and her pastor, Reverend Jefferson, calls the SNCC organizers “the evil among us.”
But her mother, along with local civil rights activist Carrie Dilworth, the SNCC organizers, and real-life figures such as Daisy Bates and attorney John Walker — indeed most of the country — seem determined to push Maeby toward integration.
“Mourner’s Bench” is Arkansas history packaged in a compelling coming-of-age story.
he author, Faye, was born and raised in Gould, Arkansas.
Her work has appeared in various literary journals and in “Arsnick: The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Arkansas,” edited by historians Dr. Jennifer Wallach and Dr. John Kirk.
Faye is co-founder and fellow at Kimbilio Center for Fiction.
She moderated a 2015 AWP panel and the grassroots panel for the Arkansas Civil Rights Symposium during the Freedom Riders 50th Anniversary.
She received an MFA in Creative Writing from Arizona State University, and a BS in Accounting from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.
The book is published by the University of Arkansas Press, and is available online at Amazon.com or from the press at uapress.com. Orders may also be placed by calling the Chicago Distribution Center at 800-6212736.