NEHS is proud to begin its Pride Month festivities by recognizing the winners of the 2026 Lambda Ampersand Award for LGBTQIA+ Writing, an annual award honoring the creative voices of NEHS’ LGBTQIA+ student members and allies. This award is the result of a meaningful partnership with Lambda Literary, the leading nonprofit dedicated to championing LGBTQIA+ literature and authors.
Focused on both visibility and inclusion, the Lambda Ampersand Award acknowledges that many LGBTQIA+ voices have long been underrepresented, especially in high school settings. Through this award, NEHS is able to celebrate student writers whose work uplifts, explores, and honors LGBTQIA+ identities through the written word.
We are thrilled to introduce this year’s winning texts—works that demonstrate courage, creativity, and the power of authentic expression. NEHS’ LGBTQIA+ student members and their allies not only are shaping literature; they are helping form a more inclusive world.
&
Ashwika Vanam
Ardrey Kell High School, NC
Ashwika Vanam is a senior at Ardrey Kell High School in Charlotte, NC. She’s interested in how people deal with change and uncertainty, and what that looks like in real life. At school, she’s involved in Model UN and writes for the school newspaper, where she gets to engage with current events and different perspectives. Outside of school, you can usually find her baking or starting a new book. She enjoys trying new things and figuring things out as she goes.
The Soul Beneath the Armor
Yaretzi Arlett Palacios Escobar
PrepaTec Chiapas, Mexico
Yaretzi Arlett Palacios Escobar is a 16-year-old high school student from Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, Mexico, where she lives with her parents and two pets. Her academic development is broad, excelling in subjects like mathematics and English. Furthermore, she has demonstrated discipline in sports such as speed skating and Taekwondo. Since childhood she has shown a deep inclination toward the arts and literature, participating in numerous drawing contests and writing stories about new worlds, which helped her to understand that literature is fundamental for freedom of expression. Among her main goals are to travel to other countries to learn about different cultures, global realities and to meet new people.
Gills
Jinyoung Lee
Fundación Colegio Americano de Puebla, Mexico
Jinyoung Lee is a senior at the Fundación Colegio Americano de Puebla and has a profound interest in novels and literary works. She gets her greatest inspiration when it rains. A perfect day involves the sound of raindrops, a great book in hand, and a cat nearby. This atmosphere will motivate her imagination and creativity, often leading to picking up a pencil or brush to sketch the scenes and characters in a notebook. Scribbling is her greatest hobby, constantly observing and creating something novel.
The Woman with the Red Coat
Marina Gonzalez Velasco
PrepaTec Querétaro, Mexico
Marina González Velasco has always been interested in creative writing and English. Since she was child, she has been fascinated by people that could create a story and bring characters alive who were previously inside their head. She has always enjoyed writing and creating stories, especially those that made her forget reality. She is in her last year of high school and will be studying Law at university.
National English Honor Society
The National English Honor Society (NEHS), founded and sponsored by Sigma Tau Delta, is the only international organization exclusively for secondary students and faculty who, in the field of English, merit special note for past and current accomplishments. Individual secondary schools are invited to petition for a local chapter, through which individuals may be inducted into Society membership. Immediate benefits of affiliation include academic recognition, scholarship and award eligibility, and opportunities for networking with others who share enthusiasm for, and accomplishment in, the language arts.
America’s first honor society was founded in 1776, but high school students didn’t have access to such organizations for another 150 years. Since then, high school honor societies have been developed in leadership, drama, journalism, French, Spanish, mathematics, the sciences, and in various other fields, but not in English. In 2005, National English Honor Society launched and has been growing steadily since, becoming one of the largest academic societies for secondary schools.
As Joyce Carol Oates writes, “This is the time for which we have been waiting.” Or perhaps it was Shakespeare: “Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer . . .” we celebrate English studies through NEHS.
National English Honor Society accepts submissions to our blog, NEHS Museletter, from all membership categories (students, Advisors, and alumni). If you are interested in submitting a blog, please read the Suggested Guidelines on our website. Email any questions and all submissions to: submit@nehsmuseletter.us.
