Iowa City student wins UNESCO City of Literature essay contest

IOWA CITY - The Iowa City Public Library probably is not the best place to squeal and jump for joy.

So when Natalie Holmes found out she had won a local essay contest, she had to wait an hour and a half, until she had finished her shift at thelibrary, before she really could celebrate.

'I was shocked,” Holmes said. 'I thought they had already picked a winner and I hadn't won.”

Holmes, an Iowa City native and student at Iowa City High School, wrote the winning entry for the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature Paul Engle Day: Glory of the Senses Essay Contest, which awards scholarships to 10 high school sophomores from across the state.

The top prize comes with one year of free tuition to the University of Iowa.

'It's amazing. It's really a relief to start out (college) that way,” Holmes said of the free tuition. 'It's nice to have that figured out at such a young age.”

Her essay, titled 'Beneath a Green Sky,” is a detailed account of the night the tornado struck Iowa City in 2006. In the piece, Holmes describes the stories her mother told her and her siblings as the tornado swept through the area.

John Kenyon, executive director of the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature, said Holmes' story fit well within the prompt - essentially asking students to capture a uniquely Iowan experience using all five of the senses.

'It was very richly detailed and very much put you in the moment and let you know how she felt and set the scene through description,” he said. 'It very much talked about a specific thing that happened ... with a lot of details talking about that situation that would certainly bring it home even for people who didn't live through it.”

Holmes said she always has been a writer but usually creates shorter pieces, such as poetry. This was one of the longer things she has written but, she said, 'it paid off.”

The contest is based on the work of Paul Engle, a long time director of the Iowa Writer's Workshop and co-founder of the International Writing Program at the UI.

'Our goal is to give one scholarship to a student in each of Iowa's education areas,” Kenyon said. 'Theoretically we are reaching every corner of the state.”

This year, nine runners-up from across the state each were awarded $500 scholarships.

Holmes said she isn't sure what she will want to major in at college but added education has always been a part of her life.

'My family is very education-oriented,” she said. 'And my teachers encouraged me to write. I like that creative environment.”