By Kathleen Driskell, Chair, School of Creative and Professional Writing
In recent residencies, we’ve noticed that fewer graduating students and their families have joined our farewell dinner buffet after the graduation ceremony. We’ve worried the added cost to include loved ones may be prohibitive for some, and we understand others may simply want to get away and have dinner on the town in Louisville. Besides, twenty years is a long time to keep doing the same thing, so the School of Writing team put our heads together and have asked the talented chefs of the Brown Hotel to shake things up a bit.
This spring, immediately after the graduation ceremony, we are delighted to invite graduates to bring a guest to our Gala Graduation Reception, where they can join other Spalding students, faculty, and alums for a champagne toast, and feast at the spectacular Grazing Tables the Brown will spread out before us.
The reception will allow those with off-site dinner plans to nibble and toast to your newly earned degrees before heading out. Those staying in should find enough to make an evening meal from the crudites, charcuterie boards full of chorizo, capicola, prosciutto, country ham and cheese boards with Derby Sage, Drunken Goat, smoked gouda, and baked brie. And nuts. And bruschetta. And charred asparagus. And shrimp cocktail. And sesame-crusted tuna. And roast beef. And fresh berries. And trust me, there’s more. Expect some beautiful desserts: lemon panna cotta, bites of Derby Pie, and chocolate mousse. A cash bar will be on site as well.
Again, each graduating student is invited to bring one guest to jolly up the celebration. Graduating students can buy $20 tickets for each additional guest they’d like to have join the reception. Children 12 or under may attend at no charge. And—because all of us are celebrating the graduates—there is no charge for our other enrolled Spalding students. Guests of (non-graduating) students or alums who wish to attend the Gala Graduation Reception may buy $20 tickets as well. Information on how to RSVP and buy additional tickets can be found in the residency survey that the SCPW will email out soon.
We’re looking forward to seeing you there!
Award-winning poet and teacher Kathleen Driskell is the MFA Chair and Professor of Creative Writing at Spalding University’s School of Creative and Professional Writing, Home of the Low-residency Master of Fine Arts in Writing Program. Her newest poetry collection Blue Etiquette is available from Red Hen Press. Next Door to the Dead, winner of the 2018 Judy Gaines Young Book Award is available from UPKY. Follow her @kathdriskell or visit her blog at kathleendriskell.blogspot.com.