Sanderia Faye - Mourners Bench

My deepest appreciation to Mrs. Carr, my high-school English teacher, for suggesting that I become a writer. I will be forever grateful to Oprah Winfrey for every show she did about finding your passion and following your dreams. I am thankful to the Phoenix College Creative Writing Department. I am more than grateful to Arizona State University Creative Writing Department, where I wrote the first draft of this novel: Alberto Rios, Jewell Parker Rhodes, Ron Carlson, Neal Lester, Melissa Pritchard, Demetria Martinez, Paul Morris, Keith Miller, and Mark Richard. And to my classmates, Robert Nelson, Mentor, Michael Guerra, and Tayari Jones, for setting the highest standards and encouraging me to follow her. Thank you to the University of Texas at Dallas, Arts and Humanties, where I finished writing and revising the manuscript: Professors Clay Reynolds and Matthew Bondurant and doctorial classmates Latoya Watkins, Bryan Gillian, Jessica Miller, Vanessa Baker, and Susan Norman.

I appreciate walking, and writing, in coffee shops with David Haynes, founder and faculty at Kimbilio Fiction; and thanks to faculty ZZ Packer; the Kimbilio advisory board, especially Darryl Dickson-Carr and Matthew Johnson; the Kimbilio fellows; and my roommate and reader, Christi Cartwright. Thank you to Hurston/Wright Writers Workshop faculty Agymah Kamau and Terri McMillian and to classmates Ravi Howard, Dolen Perkins-Valdez, and to Erica Williams, who graciously read the manuscript from its first draft until the final copy. I am eternally grateful to Dennis Lehane and Sterling Watson, founders of the Eckerd College Writers Conference Writers in Paradise, and to its dedicated faculty and my classmates, Christine Koryta, Michael Koryta, and the B&Bers, Kathy Gillet, Damaris Hill, Charlie Clark, Ben Pfeiffer, and Anna Michels. I am especially thankful to Justen and Sarah Ahren, founders of the Marthas Vineyard Writers Residency and to my supportive housemates and friends Elizabeth Gould, Stephanie Smith, Sara Goudarzi, Anna Sequoia, Jenny Klion, and Nan Byrne. Thank youto Vermont Writing Center, the Dairy Hollow Writers Residency, Alison Taylor Brown at the Village Writing School, Chocolate Secrets, and Wordspace Dallas, especially Karen Minzer and Charles Dee Mitchell.

I am most appreciative to Jane Ryder and Peter Gelfan at The Editorial Department, and also to editors Shonell Bacon, Thomas Bernardo, and Carol Sickman-Garner. I am thankful to Crystal Wilkinson, Tananarive Due, Ethelbert Miller, Verne Moore, and Rosalyn Story for their generous notes on the novel and to Angela Ards for answering my desperate call for a summer writing partner. Many thanks goes to Dennis Cordell and our monthly Sunday book club members. I am grateful to my friends, Carolyn Bolden, Shalamar Muhammad, April Burris, Chris Evans, Cindy Banton, Diane May, Rosalind Jones, Sharon Green, and Stephanie Bush. I am honored to have the most supportive family, my aunts, sisters and brothers, and numerous cousins who are actually sisters and brothers, especially Willie Dixon, Pearl Dale, Eddie Carr, Jean Anderson, and Earnestine Shelton, Melvin Sanders, and Ciperanna Mayo.

I am indebted to Jennifer Wallach for believing in this novel and for not giving up until she found a home for it. Larry Malley, former director, and Julie Watkins, former editor at the University of Arkansas Press, had faith in and took a chance on this book before it was finished. Many thanks to the current director Mike Bieker, who kept his word and followed through until publication, and to his phenomenal staff who answered every question and was patient and generous with a first-time novelist. Thank you to the blind readers for their suggestions, which made this a better book. I have not experienced anything that compares to Arkansas hospitality. Thank you for taking good care of my novel.

I am most grateful to my hometown of Gould, Arkansas. I am thankful to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Arkansas Chapter and organizers Laura Foner, Robert Cableton and Tim Janke, and to civil rights attorney John Walker. Words cannot express my gratitude to Mrs. Carrie Dilworth for her many years of service to pursing equality for African Americans. I appreciate the tireless work and activism of my mother, Mayor Essie DaleCableton. I am indebted to my church and community for insisting that my best wasnt good enough, and continuously raising the bar higher. I gave many of the characters their names out of respect for the role they played in my life.

Many years have passed since I began this journey, so if I did not mention your name for any number of reasons, please know that I am truly grateful for your encouragement throughout the years.