Patricia Aakhus

Who was Patricia Aakhus?

Patricia "Patty" Aakhus, also known by her maiden name and pseudonym, Patricia McDowell, was an American novelist and director of International Studies at the University of Southern Indiana. She specialized in Irish themes and won Readercon's Best Imaginative Literature Award in 1990 and the Cahill Award for The Voyage of Mael Duin's Curragh. She earned a BA from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and an MFA from Norwich University. She was born in Los Angeles in 1952 to Lowell and Betsy McDowell, both of whom preceded her in death, as did a brother, Mark.