We welcome you to the May edition of the Wilde Readings Series with Sherry Audette Morrow and Scott D. Morrow. The event is hosted Ann Bracken. Join us at the Columbia Art Center (Columbia Art Center 6100 Foreland Garth Columbia, MD 21045) on Tuesday, May 9th at 7 pm. Please spread the word – bring your friends, family, and students.

We encourage you to participate in the open mic. Please prepare no more than five minutes of performance time/two poems. Sign up in advance by calling the Columbia Arts Center, or when you arrive. The number is 410-730-0075. Light refreshments will be served. Books by both featured authors and open mic readers will be available for sale.

Below, get to know Sherry and Scott!

Who is the person in your life (past or present) that shows up most often in your writing?

Sherry: Since my parents’ passings, they most often show up in my writing.

Scott: I’ve never thought about people in my life showing up in my writing. I think my father frequently works his way into my scripts, as he was such a talented character actor that I imagine him in certain roles while writing them (some of which he actually performed).

Where is your favorite place to write?

Sherry: Since we’ve had road work going on outside my house for the past eight months, I am grateful to the Baltimore County Public Library in Parkville for providing a quiet place to work.

Scott: I’m still searching for my favorite place to write. I like going on “writing dates” with my wife, Sherry, where we hang out for hours at a coffee shop, library, or anywhere away from home distractions to work on our writing.

Do you have any consistent pre-writing rituals?

Sherry: I do a lot of thinking before words appear on the page. Themes and phrases and individual words fill many of my hours and much of my brain space. When it is time to write, a cup of tea is a necessity; a package of Twizzlers is an added bonus.

Scott: My most effective “pre-writing ritual” is thinking about my writing beforehand to get into “writing mode.”

Who always gets a first read?

Sherry: My husband, Scott Morrow, is always my first audience. He has been since we were in grade school together. Because we write so differently, he is the ideal first reader to identify what works for a wide readership, while also understanding the history behind my prose and poetry. He’s also a great proofreader.

Scott: My wife, Sherry, is always the first to read my work!

What is a book you’ve read more than twice (and would read again)?

Sherry: The first multiple-read book that comes to mind is Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “Love In the Time of Cholera” for his brilliant, lyrical sentence construction. I would also reread anything by Alice Hoffman, Thomas Hardy, Joyce Carol Oates, John Gardner, and Natasha Trethewey.

Scott: I actually have trouble reading books because I’m a proofreader and am easily distracted by sentence structure, verb tense, punctuation, etc. As a script-/screenplay writer, I love watching movies. Some movies I can watch over and over are “The Princess Bride,” “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” and “The Truman Show.”

What is the most memorable reading you have attended?

Sherry: So many memorable readings come to mind: Natasha Trethewey at the Baltimore Museum of Art; Alice Hoffman at the Seattle Public Library; John Gardner (not the detective novelist, the author of “The Sunlight Dialogues,” “Grendel,” “October Light,” and “Nickel Mountain” among others) at California State University, Northridge in the early 1980s shortly before his death; Alice Walker at Barnes & Noble in Northern Virginia; Terry Prachett, also at Barnes & Noble in Northern Virginia shortly before his dementia diagnosis.

Scott: Terry Pratchett in Northern Virginia.

Scott D. Morrow is a Baltimore-based scriptwriter, musician, lyricist, and composer. He has received two Individual Artist Awards in scriptwriting from the Maryland State Arts Council, and his one-act play, “Mr. Mahler Finds a Dollar,” won Baltimore’s Artscape98 one-act play contest. He has also written screenplays, musicals, and radio skits. His short films, “Abduction: A Love Story” and “Telekinesis for Beginners,” were premiered at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival.

Writer, editor, and occasional poet Sherry Audette Morrow loves writing dates with her husband; pages actually get written. Sherry has been finishing a novel that makes readers laugh — quite different for her — plus writing poetry that makes even her uncomfortable. Her work has appeared in Chesapeake Life and Baltimore magazines, New Lines from the Old Line State anthology, and Threads magazine, among others. She has been founding editor of Scribble and an MWA past president.