Elizabeth Holden (she/her) moved to Madison in 2006, mostly because of all the good restaurants. She was immediately intrigued by Madison’s newly formed roller derby league and started regularly going to games. It took her nine years to work up the nerve to start playing the sport herself, then another nine years to publish a novel about it.

Backing up: Before her move to Madison, Liz went to college at Northern Illinois University, where she got bachelors and masters in physics. She’d started college as a journalism major, but switched to physics after taking an astronomy class that rekindled a childhood love for the topic. Her reasoning? She could still pursue writing with a physics degree, but it’s hard to be a physicist with a journalism degree.

Backing further up: Physics was, of course, not the only thing that interested Liz as a child. She’s been writing stories since before she could literally write, initially dictating them to her mother, who faithfully recorded Liz’s deranged tales of CareBears getting kidnapped and My Little Ponies taking pregnancy tests. As she got older, she never stopped writing. Age 10: Two sisters win a contest to become princesses, then solve an attempted murder. Age 13: A serial killer gets his comeuppance, in a story inspired by the song “Hotel California.” Age 16: One weekend away forces an awkward tween girl to confront her older sister’s coming out and her parents’ toxic marriage.

That last story, written for her high school lit mag, coincidentally has some themes in common with Liz’s debut novel, Mighty Millie Novak, which was published by Flux Books in August.

Millie Novak is a mess. She’s been home-schooled for years, and now, at almost-16, she’s joined a roller derby team. Her older brother has moved out, her parents are finally divorcing after a lifetime of fighting, and all her teammates seem infinitely cooler than her. Millie is desperately lonely and terrified of rejection. If only she weren’t such an awkward mess, she’s confident she could get her teammates to accept her—and get that cute girl on the all-star team to fall for her.

She’s determined to reinvent herself, and, with the help of her friend Pumpkin, crafts a plan to impress her teammates and get her crush to fall for her. Reinvention isn’t easy, and she’s tangled up in her own lies.

Liz was inspired by her experiences with anxiety, derby, and ridiculousness. Mighty Millie Novak is available wherever books are sold. 

2024 Great Madison+ LGBTQ+ Artist Survey

Adam Raiford Wilson (ARWIL), Multimedia
Artery Ink, Design & Illustration
Elizabeth Holden, Author
Emily AF, Musician