Finalists:2026-2027
Mariela Pavlica (Mepham H.S.)
Jasmine Mehta (Cold Spring Harbor H.S.)2025-2026
Kayla J. Duncan (Valley Stream Central H.S.)
Rachel Ha (Herricks H.S.)
Olivia Gu (Great Neck South H.S.)
Angela Vlavianos (New Hyde Park Memorial H.S.)

Katherine Galbraith-Chan

2025-2026 Nassau County Teen Poet Laureate and Scholarship Winner

Katherine is Co-Editor-in-Chief of Vintage Literary Magazine [September 2024-present] which involved leading an editorial team in curating and publishing annual literary magazines, focusing on creative writing, poetry, art, and photography, managing submissions, overseeing the editorial process including copyediting, layout design, and final publication, and lead weekly club meetings to workshop poetry and prose.Katherine was responsible for organizing readings at the Vintage Coffeehouse open-mic, a Vintage field trip to Sleepy Hollows, New York and reading her poetry at the Vintage Coffeehouse open-mic [2022, 2023, 2024] She was Regional Editor/Vice-President of Vintage [2023-2024] and Secretary of Vintage [2022-2023].She is Co-Founder & Co-Editor-in-Chief of youth literary magazine [June 2024-present] The Wildflower Review.She published a promotional piece for a high school play, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare [Abridged] in a local newspaper, The Williston Post [November 16, 2024]Katherine tutored refugees in English through a volunteer program in Indonesia.Katherine describes her goals, “I hope to pursue a career in the editing and publishing industry so that I can not only nurture the voices of young writers, but also make my mark on the literary community. I am committed to helping others refine their writing, as well as working to grow my own skills as a poet and editor.”

Kristen Lee

2026-2027 Nassau County Teen Poet Laureate and Scholarship Winner

Kristen Lee is a Chinese-American writer, artist, and speaker from Herricks High School in Long Island, New York, and the 2026-2027 Nassau County Teen Poet Laureate. She is a two-time First Class Distinction winner in the National Council of Teachers of English Achievement Awards in Writing and has been recognized by National Public Radio, the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, the Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest, and the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association, among others. Her honors also include awards from the Nassau Reading Council’s Young Authors’ Contest, sponsored by the NYS Reading Association, and the Kenneth F. Gambone Writing Contest, hosted by the Long Island Language Arts Council.Her work has been published in The Shore, Polyphony Lit, Apprentice Writer, 1455 Books, The Howl, and Noor, among others. Kristen is Co-President and Co-Editor-in-Chief of OPUS, Herricks High School’s award-winning literary magazine. She is also a prose editor at The Bokeh Review, an international youth-run magazine dedicated to amplifying the voices of marginalized communities through art and writing.Since 2024, Kristen has been working extensively on a historical fantasy novel she hopes to someday publish. Beyond the page, she has competed in the 2025 Poetry Out Loud Regional Finals and enjoys making the voices of her and others heard through community engagement.When not writing or painting, Kristen enjoys volunteering at NYU Langone Health, watching summertime baseball games, and spending time with her dog, Penthesilea.