CONWAY, Ark. (September 22, 2014) – Hendrix College professor Dr. Pat C. Hoy was awarded the 2014 Monroe K. Spears Essay Prize.
The prize is awarded annually for the best essay published in The Sewanee Review.
"I am thrilled to receive this award from The Sewanee Review,” Hoy said. “Monroe Spears, for whom the award is named, encouraged me when I first began to publish, so this award, named in his honor, is especially important to me. He was a distinguished man of letters and a former editor of The Sewanee Review."
Hoy’s prize-winning essay titled "Warring with Words" deals with the plight of combat veterans who return from war to a nation that often fails to understand either their needs or the experiences they have endured.
“Despite their fortunate return to the homeland, many veterans harbor losses that are difficult to carry; they have an acute sense of war's claims on themselves and the nation, but their stories are difficult, sometimes impossible, to tell because combat manages to impose a code of
silence on so many of its survivors,” said Hoy, a graduate of the United States Military Academy who served in the U.S. Army for 28 years.
Hoy, who earned his master’s degree and doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania, has taught writing at Harvard University, New York University and West Point. In 2013, he joined the Hendrix faculty as a visiting professor to oversee an essay writing pilot course, underwritten by a grant from
the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Founded in 1876, Hendrix College is a national leader in engaged liberal arts and sciences education. This year, Hendrix was named the country’s #1 “Up and Coming” liberal arts colleges by U.S. News and World Report. Hendrix is featured in the 2015 Fiske Guide to Colleges, Forbesmagazine's list of America's Top Colleges, the 2014 Princeton Review’s The Best 378 Colleges, and the latest
edition of Colleges That Change
Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think about Colleges. Hendrix has been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884. For more information, visit
www.hendrix.edu.