Thanks to the Austin Public Library, one Pacelli Catholic Schools student will be a published author this time next year.

Sarah Holtz, a Pacelli seventh-grader, will be published in the annual COMPAS Anthology of Student Writing. Her poem was selected by Diego Vasquez Jr., a well-known Minnesota poet who spent a week in March teaching poetry to Pacelli elementary, middle and high school students. Holtz was closely followed by sophomore Spencer Holtorf and seventh-grader Elizabeth Ettinger as students who may get their poems published as well.

“It was interesting to hear how (Vasquez) became interested in (poetry),” Holtorf said.

Vasquez’s residency was made possible by Legacy funding the library received as part of its New Harmonies exhibit, a Smithsonian Institute-created showcase highlighting national musical trends and local music history. Between March 21 and 25, Vasquez taught students in grades 3, 6, 7, 9, and 10 about poetry, talking about his experiences as a poet and getting students to express themselves through the written and spoken word.

“Any time you can get someone from the real world in the classroom teaching from real experience, the students really grow,” Pacelli Principal Mary Holtorf said.

The students who worked with Vasquez say they definitely grew. Some students, like Ettinger, grew more confident with their writing, learning to assert themselves through the written word.

“Sometimes it doesn’t matter if (an audience) likes it as long as you like it,” Ettinger said.

Holtz walked away with a sense of pride. She wrote poems about nature and humanity’s personification of its surroundings, and the poem picked for publication drew comparisons between herself and weeping willows, her favorite tree.

“It’s just so cool,” she said of the award.

Holtz’s poem, “Who I Am,” will be published in the COMPAS Anthology of Student Writing next year. COMPAS is a state organization dedicated to getting artists in the classroom engaging students. One student from each week of a writing residency will be included in the book.