Youth Voices Writers' Contest

Araceli Esparza is a published, award-winning Bilingual Chicana Poeta. Araceli’s work has been featured in several anthologies and journals, and you can hear her poetry in the Wisconsin Life archives. She is a Pushcart Nominee twice! She is an MFA graduate from Hamline University.

Currently, Araceli is planting seeds as a social justice speaker and founder of Midwest Mujeres, a Latina mentoring program focused on corporate storytelling skills and providing space for Latina stories to be shared. Check out her work online.

Wallis Lapsley was born and raised in Seattle, WA. One of his earliest memories is walking to the Seattle Public Library (University Branch) with his little sister and mom to use the computers and pick out books. 

Wallis went to school and played soccer at UC Davis where he studied Global Disease Biology and Chicana/o Studies. He have been fortunate enough to be playing professional soccer for 6 years with stops in New York, Tucson, Seattle, and Omaha before coming to Madison this year. Once Wallis' playing career is finished he hopes to pursue coaching or go back to school to study Nursing or Library Science.

Bianca Martin is the host of the local, award-winning weekday podcast City Cast Madison, which connects Madisonians to their city and neighbors. 

She’s formerly a long time radio and podcast producer for a number of NPR and public radio programs including “Our Body Politic”, “1A”, plus, National Geographic's nonfiction narrative podcast “Into The Depths”. 

Growing up, Constance lived in a lot of different places. The one place she always made sure to visit was the public library- even when in Germany! Since Constance read all the time, no one was surprised when she became a librarian. 

Having spent the school year encouraging students to try different books, she is excited to read the original pieces that the creative kids of Madison write!

Laura Anne Bird lives in Madison with her husband, three big kids, and little dog. When she’s not reading, writing, or reviewing books, she volunteers as an ambassador for Wisconsin Book Festival, a board member for Madison Public Library Foundation, and the Co-chair of Lunch for Libraries.

Laura is the middle grade author of Marvelous Jackson and Crossing the Pressure Line. Join her on Instagram where she celebrates all things literary.

Justin Festge-Russell, or JEXIZIS, is the Madison Youth Poet Laureate and a 19-year-old student at UW Madison. Justin specializes in hip-hop, poetry, and creative production. He is also a member of a full tuition Hip-Hop, Activism & Urban Arts Scholarship called First Wave.

Justin works with youth to explore and uncover their artistic prowess. He's currently pursuing a degree in education with the goal of impacting the lives of youth with positive direction.