Wisconsin People & Ideas 2025 Poetry and Fiction Contest Winners

Elizabeth Hendricks is from New Berlin and is currently a junior at the University of Iowa. An aspiring fantasy author, she works as the web editor for Earthwords Undergraduate Literary Review, the oldest literary magazine on campus. When she isn't writing, she loves reading, drawing, and spending time in nature. 
 

John Mulvihill grew up in central Iowa but has lived in Wisconsin for the last twenty-five years. He has a BA from Grinnell College and a PhD from the University of Iowa. He has taught literature and writing at the University of Iowa, Drake University, UW-Milwaukee, and for the last eight years at UW-Madison. He lives in New Glarus with his wife Kathryn and daughter Vivienne. What he likes most about writing fiction is setting himself a puzzle—what is this about?—then trying to figure it out and being surprised by the answer. “Full House” will be his first published story. 

Hannah Greendale is a writer and editor who’s worked in books sales, advertising, and gaming. She’s the third-place winner of the 2025 Wisconsin People & Ideas Fiction Contest. When she’s not picking wild strawberries or feeding squirrels, she posts book reviews & reading recommendations on YouTube at Hello, Bookworm.

Alison Thumel’s debut poetry collection, Architect, won the 2024 Miller Williams Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the 2025 Kate Tufts Poetry Award. She is the recipient of a Wallace Stegner Fellowship in poetry at Stanford University, a grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation, and the Martha Meier Renk Fellowship from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she completed her MFA. Her poems have appeared widely, including in Poetry, Ploughshares, and New England Review. She lives and writes in Wisconsin. 

Lex Williams Page (he/they) is a poet from Madison, WI, originally hailing from the Southwest. He graduated from the University of Virginia and has poems published in the Mid-Atlantic Review, Virginia Literary Review, V Mag at UVA, and The Madison Review. They can be found @lexbeepage on Instagram. 

Breanna Grow is a poet and nonprofit professional living in Madison, Wisconsin with her partner, Ben, and their cat, Millie. Her work has been featured in Raleigh Review, The Yahara Journal and Wisconsin Poets Calendar. She can be found on the ground investigating bugs, mushrooms and other eye-catching life forms.