The Southern Indiana Review, the USI Department of English and the USI Foundation created the Patricia Aakhus award last year, named after the late Aakhus, who was a professor at the university for 30 years until she passed away from cancer in 2012.
The $750 award is given to a writer to acknowledge a piece of their work that has been published in the Southern Indiana Review. The award is also meant to honor the memory of professor and author Patricia Aakhus.
During Aakhus’s time at the university, she founded the international studies major and taught classes in creative writing and the history of alchemy and magic. She was a published author of three novels and also wrote essays, short stories and plays.
“She was very prolific in the kinds of writing she did. She had a passion for writing,” said Michael Aakhus, Patricia’s husband and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at USI.
This makes the award even more reflective of her as it can be presented to writers from all genres that appear in the Southern Indiana Review.
The award came about as a wish of the English department to honor Aakhus’s memory and works.
Southern Indiana Review Editor Ron Mitchell and English Department Chair Stephen Spencer got the ball rolling on the award.
“The whole department wanted to find a way to honor her work in the department because she did so many things,” Spencer said. “Ron Mitchell came up with the idea that we could have a special award. I worked with him to provide the support to get the idea off the ground and approved.”
Dean Aakhus said that he did not approach them with the idea — they actually approached him to see if he would be interested in letting her name be used for it.
“I’m very pleased that they decided to do it. I will probably give them some money, too, so that they can continue their work,” Aakhus said.
Spencer said the money for the award came from Dean Aakhus and some other donors as well.
The winner is chosen in a two-part process. First, the editorial staff at SIR narrows down the nominations to a certain number. Then the English department and others read the submissions and vote on a recipient.
“In some ways, that makes the award even more impressive because it was not a small editorial staff making the decision. It was a lot of people in the English department commenting on the work. So that really says something about the strength of the persons work,” Spencer said.
Susannah Nevison was awarded the 2014 award.
Nevison is a professor at the University of Utah, where she teaches creative writing and is a doctoral candidate. She is the author of “Teratology,” which is a full length collection of poetry.
She won the award for her poem, “If You Come to the Sea and You Must Cross,” which appeared in the 2014 spring edition of SIR.
Dean Aakhus will have his first opportunity to meet Nevison when USI has an award ceremony and reading to acknowledge her winning of the award later this semester.
“That will be a great way to honor Patty as well because the writer will be here and she will read her work. That’s just the kind of thing she would have loved. She always attended the visiting writers we had on campus,” Spencer said. “It’s just the perfect thing to honor her as well, I think.”
Dean Aakhus said the award also gives the people who survive her a way to remember her.
“To be honest, she didn’t like attention very much,” Aakhus said. “But I think for all the people who survive her — her students, other colleagues and faculty, and her children, too — I think they’ll be honored by the fact that she is remembered this way. I think it is a significant way to do it because it represents her passion for her work and for the people she spent her life working with.”
Both Spencer and Aakhus expressed a desire and belief that the award will be continued for years to come.
