Gala Recap

So last night was the Writers Community Gala, where 20 BSU undergrads got a chance to read a single piece of poetry or prose less than 500 words in front of an audience and a group of faculty judges.

I cannot be more pleased with the results. We had a turnout of about 85 people. I was really impressed by pretty much all of the readers. Also, it was nice to see some new faces/voices read.

The two main changes we made this year seemed to work out really well. Instead of using Student Government Association money to buy prizes, our plan was to ask for donations from faculty and then use club funds to buy the rest. Our faculty came through in a big way, donating enough prizes that not only did we not have to buy anything, we had enough to give all 20 participants a prize just for competing and have a free raffle as an end-of-semester thank you to the audience. The other change was a heavily enforced 500 word limit per reader, which helped the reading go quickly and smoothly.

Congratulations are in order to Spencer McNelly and Lindsey LaVal, who got 3rd and 2nd place respectively. Of course, big congrats to Layne Ransom who won the whole thing. All three readers got a sweet stack of books that others should be jealous of. All three will be asked to participate in a reading in the Spring, so be on the lookout for that.

Elysia, my fellow WC officer, did a great job hosting beside me. I'm also proud to say that I had few awkward moments and slept well last night.

Big thanks are in order to the judges for donating their time and talents: Cathy Day, Rai Peterson, Jared Sexton, and Audrey Brown. Also, thanks to the donators, who went above and beyond in providing prizes for this event: Jill Christman, Mark Neely, Sean Lovelace, Todd McKinney, Andrew Scott, Victoria Barrett, Peter Davis, and Cathy Day. Big thanks to Todd and Elysia again for helping me out so much putting this together. I'm also hugely thankful for all the readers and audience members who have made this such a successful semester.

REALLY I COULDNT BE MORE GLAD THIS IS OVER AND I MEAN THAT IN A GREAT GREAT WAY LIKE IT WAS SO GOOD AND LETS BASK IN ITS GOODNESS