A new class of 125 Penn State Berks students will receive their baccalaureate and associate degrees on Friday, December 19, 2014, at 7:30 p.m. in the Beaver Community Center when Berks hosts the fall 2014 commencement ceremony.
The keynote speaker will be Amity Gaige. Amity Gaige is the author of three novels, O My Darling (2005), The Folded World (2007), and Schroder, which was published by Twelve Books/Hachette in 2013. A New York Times Notable Book, Schroder has been translated into eighteen languages, and was recently shortlisted for The Folio Prize. Gaige has been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship, fellowships at the MacDowell and Yaddo colonies, a Baltic Writing Residency, and in 2006, she was recognized as one of the ?5 Under 35? outstanding emerging writers by the National Book Foundation. Her short stories, essays, and book reviews have appeared in publications such as The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Guardian, O Magazine, The Yale Review, One Story, and elsewhere.
A graduate of Reading High (class of 1991), she is the daughter of the late Dr. Frederick Gaige, who served as the Chief Executive Officer of Penn State Berks from 1984-2001, and Austra Gaige. She lives near Hartford, CT, and is the current Visiting Writer at Amherst College.
