From March 10 – 13, 2027, NEHS students and Chapter Advisors from around the world will meet in Milwaukee, WI, for the English Honor Societies Convention. The convention site is especially meaningful this year: Milwaukee is the home of the first commercially successful typewriter, a reminder that our craft as readers and writers has always been intertwined with evolving technology.
The 2027 Convention theme is technê, a concept rooted in Aristotelian philosophy. It describes not just the act of creating, but the deep understanding of a craft that allows it to be taught and continually refined. As members of NEHS, students and Advisors alike embody this ideal every day: analyzing texts, crafting arguments, telling stories, and mentoring others.
Participants will study this year’s Convention Common Reader, How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz, a powerful novel that invites readers to consider resilience, identity, and community. Cruz will be a keynote speaker at the convention. The 2027 Convention will also focus on Jane Austen, whose innovations in narrative technique and character development continue to shape literature today. Her mastery of technê reminds us that great writing transcends time, even as the tools we use evolve.
Beyond sessions and speakers, the convention also offers connection. It’s a chance to meet fellow students and Advisors who share your interests, to collaborate with others, and to become part of an international community committed to the power of language and literature.
Look out for more information about traveling to the 2027 Convention, the NEHS Poets Laureate Program, and the NEHS Convention Presentation Award shortly.
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.
