Marianne Hales Harding

MARIANNE HALES HARDING {marianne_hales_harding@hotmail. com} is a playwright, poet, and essayist who founded Provo, Utah’s Speak for Yourself creative writing open mic. Her plays have been produced across the country at theaters such as the Actors Theatre of Louisville, Seattle’s Greenstage Theatre, New York’s Theatre Studio, and Provo’s Covey Center. Her poetry and creative nonfiction have been published in Everyday Mormon Writer, Silver Birch Press, Mormon Artist, ePregnancy, and Rocky Mountain Running Magazine. She is a faculty member in composition for Western Governors University and teaches playwriting at Brigham Young University.

The Missing Mrs.

Articles/Essays – Volume 49, No. 3

Every afternoon when I pick my children up from school the teacher who acts as a crossing guard calls out, “Hello, Mrs. Harding!” I return his large, friendly smile and call back, “Hello, Mr.—!” Occasionally the encounter is elongated by a sentence or two about how brilliant my child is or how much she enjoys his English class. On the whole, it is a pleasant exchange. But my name is not Mrs. Harding. It never has been. Not even when I was married.