From desert to sea: Mexican woman wins global contest with her story

Written in the desert of Torreón, Coahuila, a story about maritime navigation has enabled Professor Ana Isabel Towns Castro to win first place in a global creative writing contest in English.

Towns Castro, who is also the Academic Director of Humanities, Literature, and Languages at PrepaTec Laguna, made her debut and won the National English Honor Society (NEHS) Hebestreit Award for Adventure Writing, competing against hundreds of participants.

The Hebestreit Award for Adventure Writing is a contest honoring David Hebestreit, an NEHS member who, according to the organization’s website, “believed in the transformative power of words and the importance of sharing one’s journey through storytelling.”

For the 2025 – 2026 edition, NEHS students and faculty advisors from all over the world participated with submissions of no more than 850 words that told stories about sailing through the use of metaphors.

“All of this is very ironic, if you think about it. (The story) had to include the sea, compasses, and stars, so it’s highly ironic that a teacher from a semi-desert region managed to pull it off,” she said.

Short story from La Laguna wins international award

Ana Towns, winner of the international creative writing award, shared that her winning story tells the tale of a female sailor suffering from a curse that causes a monster to seize control of her heart and memories.

A witch saves her by trapping the monster inside a chest where her heart can keep beating, warning her that her only salvation is to find the pearls from a land where it never rains.

Based on that premise, an 850-word adventure unfolds as she searches for those pearls which, in reality, turn out to be her own tears.

“It’s highly ironic that a teacher from a semi-desert region won an international contest for stories about sailing.” - Ana Towns

The professor explained that the idea for the story stemmed from a method shared by filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón before he brought his film Gravity to life.

According to the PrepaTec Laguna department director, Alfonso Cuarón was facing a creative block that his son was able to resolve by asking him: “Dad, how are you feeling?”

The Mexican filmmaker replied that he felt adrift, which inspired the thought of an astronaut, and ultimately led to the creation of his Oscar-winning film.

After joining in the creative challenge alongside some of her students, she encouraged them to apply that same method: “For example, if you’re very angry, you can imagine that everything you touch burns.”

Based on that framework and personal experience, she developed the idea that led her to write the winning story for the National English Honor Society (NEHS) Hebestreit Award for Adventure Writing.

However, the author acknowledges that bringing the winning story to life was no easy task, as her initial draft exceeded 1,300 words.

“The first draft turned out to be over 1,300 words. I had to keep reducing it, stripping more and more away, which is really difficult, to be honest,” she said.

The process forced her to scale back on detail, let go of phrases she loved, and remove multiple prepositions.

This whole process led to her writing, rewriting, and editing the story multiple times, prompting her to reflect:

“You may like writing, but do you like rewriting? If you don’t enjoy the editing process, that’s fine; it just means you view writing as a hobby. But, if your goal is to do it professionally, the real challenge is editing and rewriting.”

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