Honorary Memberships

Elizabeth Acevedo is the current Young People’s Poet Laureate and the New York Times-bestselling author of The Poet X, which won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, the Michael L. Printz Award, the Pura Belpré Award, the Carnegie medal, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, and the Walter Award. She is also the author of With the Fire on High—which was named a best book of the year by the New York Public Library, NPR, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal—and Clap When You Land, which was a Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor book and a Kirkus finalist. Her debut adult novel, Family Lore, has also been named a national bestseller. 

Acevedo has been a fellow of Cave Canem, Cantomundo, and a participant in the Callaloo Writer’s Workshops. She is a National Poetry Slam Champion, and resides in Washington, DC.

LeVar Burton, multi-award winning actor, director and education advocate, is best known to television audiences around the world for his portrayals of two iconic characters, Kunte Kinte in “Roots” and Geordi LaForge in “Star Trek: The Next Generation,”and for his 23 years as producer and host of the beloved PBS series “Reading Rainbow.” Burton is co-founder of the award-winning Reading Rainbow digital library, which has produced the #1 educational app and has just introduced SKYBRARY, the next generation of innovative children’s educational media on the web. He is co-Executive Producer of the upcoming multi-part remake of “Roots” and has received the Eliot-Pearson Award for Excellence in Children’s Media from Tufts University, the 2014 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes Innovator’s Award, and the 2015 Chicago Tribune Young Adult Literary Award. Burton is also the author of the children’s book, The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm.

Anthony Doerr, born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, is the author of story collections The Shell Collector and Memory Wall, the memoir Four Seasons in Rome, and the novels About Grace, All the Light We Cannot See, and Cloud Cuckoo Land. All the Light We Cannot See won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. Cloud Cuckoo Land was a finalist for the 2021 National Book Award, the British Book Awards’ Novel of the Year, and won the Grand prix de littérature américaine in France.

Doerr’s short stories and essays have won five O. Henry Prizes and have been included in various prestigious anthologies. His work has been translated into over forty languages and received numerous accolades. All the Light We Cannot See was a #1 New York Times bestseller and stayed on the list for over 200 weeks.

Rita Dove is an acclaimed poet and author who received the Pulitzer Prize for her poetry collection Thomas and Beulah in 1987 and served as U.S. Poet Laureate from 1993 to 1995. Dove’s extensive body of work includes poetry, a novel, short stories, essays, and anthologies. Her notable contributions include editing The Best American Poetry 2000 and The Penguin Anthology of 20th-Century American Poetry, as well as writing weekly poetry columns for The Washington Post and The New York Times Magazine. Her plays and song cycles have been performed at prestigious venues such as the Kennedy Center and the Royal National Theatre. Dove has received numerous honors, including the National Humanities Medal, the National Medal of Arts, and multiple lifetime achievement awards. She has also been awarded 29 honorary doctorates and serves as a professor at the University of Virginia.

Louise Erdrich is an acclaimed American author known for her novels, poetry, and children’s books. She is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and often explores Native American themes in her work. Some of her notable novels include Love Medicine, The Round House, which won the National Book Award for Fiction, and The Night Watchman, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. In addition to her novels, Erdrich has written short stories, nonfiction, and poetry collections. Her storytelling often weaves together multi-generational family sagas with rich, interlinked narratives and frequently addresses the complexities of Native American life, history, and culture.

She has received numerous awards and honors, including the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction. Beyond her literary accomplishments, she is an advocate for Native American rights and literacy. She is also the owner of Birchbark Books, an independent bookstore in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Silas House is a New York Times bestselling author of seven novels, including Clay’s Quilt, A Parchment of Leaves, and Lark Ascending, the latter of which won the 2023 Southern Book Prize and Nautilus Book Award. He has written four plays and the nonfiction book Something’s Rising. In 2022, he received the Duggins Prize and was named Appalachian of the Year. In 2023, he became the Poet Laureate of Kentucky and a Grammy finalist. House’s work appears in major publications, and he produced the award-winning documentary Hillbilly. His novel Southernmost is being adapted into a film, and he co-produced the Tyler Childers video In Your Love. He collaborates with various musicians and has received numerous awards. House teaches at Berea College and the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Creative Writing and served as a judge for the 2023 National Book Award in Fiction. He lives in Lexington, Kentucky.

Over a distinguished career spanning more than four decades, William Johnson combined leadership in national literary organizations with an accomplished academic career. As founder of NEHS, he managed every aspect of its creation—securing legal standing, establishing accounts, and forming an Advisory Council—before leading it for twenty years alongside director Dave Wendelin. Johnson also served as Executive Director of Sigma Tau Delta and built an extensive academic legacy through 42 years of university teaching, program administration, curriculum development, and mentorship, as well as producing a robust record of research, writing, publishing, and conference presentations. Throughout these endeavors, Johnson championed excellence in English language arts, fostering programs that now enjoy international recognition.

Jean Lamar has been in education for nearly 35 years, all within Nassau County, Florida. Over the first 20 years, she taught language arts, English, reading, and drama at both middle and high schools. In 2001, she earned National Board Teacher Certification in Early Adolescence/English Language Arts and served as President of the Florida Council of Teachers of English in 2005. Jean has received numerous honors, including the 2009 Florida Teacher of the Year and the University of North Florida’s Distinguished Alumni Award (2008). She has facilitated many trainings for educators, focusing on English/Language Arts and topics for beginning teachers. Jean has served on the Florida Association for Staff Development board and the state Professional Development Protocol Review Team. For the last 15 years, she has worked in professional development and secondary education, serving as an instructional coach, professional learning facilitator, Teacher of the Year coordinator, and AVID District Director. Her greatest passion is sharing her love for teaching and learning with fellow educators.

Ada Limón is the author of six books of poetry, including The Carrying, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her book Bright Dead Things was nominated for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. Her most recent book of poetry, The Hurting Kind, was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship and wrote a poem that will be engraved on NASA’s Europa Clipper Spacecraft that will be launched to the second moon of Jupiter in October 2024.

As the 24th Poet Laureate of The United States, her signature project was called You Are Here and focuses on how poetry can help connect us to the natural world. In October 2023 she was awarded a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, and she was named a TIME magazine woman of the year in 2024.

Alice Oseman is an award-winning author, illustrator, and screenwriter. Alice is the creator of LGBTQ+ YA romance comic Heartstopper, and the writer, creator, and executive producer for the Emmy Award-winning television adaptation for Netflix, produced by See-Saw. Alice has written every episode and been involved at every stage, from casting to music. Alice is the author of several YA contemporary novels about teenage disasters: Solitaire (published when she was 19), Radio Silence, I Was Born for This, and Loveless (a New York Times bestseller). Alice’s books have won, been shortlisted or nominated for a number of awards, including the YA Book Prize, the Inky Awards, the Carnegie Medal, and the Goodreads Choice Awards. Alice was named the Attitude Person of the Year 2023, and The British Book Awards Illustrator of the Year.

Ann Patchett is the author of nine novels, including “Bel Canto,” “State of Wonder,” “Commonwealth,” and “The Dutch House,” a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She edited “Best American Short Stories, 2006” and wrote four nonfiction books, such as “Truth & Beauty” and “These Precious Days.” Patchett also authored children’s books “Lambslide” and “Escape Goat.”

A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, Patchett has received many awards, including a National Humanities Medal and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her books are New York Times bestsellers and translated into over thirty languages. She opened Parnassus Books in Nashville, TN, in 2011 and champions independent booksellers. Time magazine named her one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2012.

Ann Patchett lives in Nashville with her husband, Karl VanDevender, and their dog, Nemo.

Jason Reynolds is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty books for children and young adults. He is best known for his novels All American Boys (co-written with Brendan Kiely), the Track series, and Long Way Down, which received Newbery, Printz, and Coretta Scott King Honors. Among Jason’s many accolades, he was named the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature by the Library of Congress for 2020-2022. In addition to these notable achievements, Jason has been recognized with several other prestigious awards, including the NAACP Image Award, the Kirkus Prize, and the Walter Dean Myers Award. His impactful work extends beyond writing, as he frequently speaks at schools and literary conferences, inspiring young readers and writers across the country. Jason is also on the faculty at Lesley University, where he teaches in the Writing for Young People MFA Program.

Clint Smith is the author of the narrative nonfiction book, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America, which was a #1 New York Times bestseller, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, the Hillman Prize for Book Journalism, the Stowe Prize, and selected by the New York Times as one of the 10 best books of 2021. He is also the author of the New York Times bestselling poetry collection Above Ground and the award-winning poetry collection Counting Descent. His writing has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review, and elsewhere. Clint received his B.A. in English from Davidson College and a Ph.D. in Education from Harvard University. He is a staff writer at The Atlantic.

Dave Wendelin served as Director of the National English Honor Society (NEHS) from August 2008 to December 2023, following a distinguished 25-year career teaching high school English—many years as an Advanced Placement instructor—before moving into central administration as director of K–12 English language arts and social studies for Jefferson County Public Schools, Colorado’s largest district at the time. Active in professional organizations, he held leadership roles with the Colorado Language Arts Society, and served the National Council of Teachers of English in numerous capacities. After retiring from Jeffco Schools in 2006, he continued in education as an adjunct university instructor and supervisor of student teachers. Wendelin’s connection to NEHS began in 2002, when Dr. William Johnson invited him to join a small group envisioning a high school-level English honor society, leading to the creation of the NEHS constitution and the society’s launch in 2005. As director, Wendelin oversaw rapid growth, and initiated outreach to middle schools. Under his leadership, NEHS expanded opportunities for students and teachers through scholarships, grants, webinars, guest speakers, merchandise, and contests, all aimed at fostering a love for literature and writing. As he passed the torch to Chris Lockwood and his team, Wendelin left NEHS poised for even greater achievements in its next twenty years.