This spring, the Socorro Independent School District's Literary Anthology celebrated its 40th anniversary, showcasing exceptional writing from students in kindergarten through 12th grade.
The anthology featured first-, second-, and third-place student works across various genres, including poetry, essays, narratives, short stories, graphic novels and correspondence, highlighting the talent and imagination of writers throughout the district.
“It's been a great journey, 40 years of celebrating SISD authors,” said Jeannette Limon, SISD Instructional Officer for Reading Language Arts 6 through 8. “It's just a great tradition that we've created here in Socorro.”
The district recognized the anthology’s first-place winners at Americas High School on May 9.
“I feel very proud because I'm one of the first ones from Helen Ball Elementary that got it done,” said London Murillo, a second grader. She wrote a story about her dogs.
“I love dogs, and I love school,” Murillo said. “And I just like writing stories.”
Limon explained that most of the submissions are classroom writing assignments, which are evaluated at the campus level. The first-place winner from each campus is then judged at the district level, where first-, second- and third-place winners are selected.
This was not the first time Gabriel Lopez, a junior at El Dorado High School, had his work published in the anthology. He had previously been published in elementary school.
He said writing allowed him to express himself. He wrote an informational essay on the pros and cons of the Chick-fil-A restaurants. He said he noticed a vast improvement in his writing skills compared to when he was in elementary school.
“I feel like it's more mature. I feel like, obviously, when I was in elementary school, yes, it was writing, but it was more like elementary writing. I feel like now, as I'm a junior, it feels more real because it's more mature and my grade level,” Lopez said.
Limon said she hopes the anthology will continue to encourage students to keep writing.
“Who knows, we might be reading their books in the near future,” Limon said.