Fourteen Hills interviews Jill Tidman, winner of the Bambi Holmes Award, 15.2 Contributor

Fourteen Hills fiction editor Fernando Pujals interviewed Jill Tidman, who was awarded the Bambi Holmes award by Fourteen Hills Editor-in-Chief for her story, "This is How I Saw It", which appeared in issue 15.2, Spring 2009.


Read the entire interview on our website. Here's some highlights from the interview:



14H: How do you know when you’re reading something really, really effing great?

JT: For me, when I read the sentence three or four times before I can move on. Often, for me, it's about how people put words together, I almost can’t see the story until I’ve really seen the sentences first. I look at it through that angle and then I have to let go of the sentence structure and get into the story line.

14H: What are you working on now?

 JT: Well, I did that write 50,000 words in a month thing.

14H: What was that experience like?

JT: It was crazy. I decided to write on a typewriter so I couldn’t erase anything which was liberating because I often, I mean, I can’t really move on to another page, until one page is really set. With this experiment, because of the quantity over quality aspect of it, if something wasn’t going right I just kept [writing]. I was so unattached to the outcome, and that was fantastic. The story starts in a restaurant, during a conversation over dinner.

14H: Have you gone back to it?

JT: I let it rest, and then figuring how to get it into the computer was a really nice way to review it... I didn’t have to retype all of it.  I probably salvaged about two percent of each page. I was able to pull the stuff that felt like there was something to work from, so I’m stuck piecing it together, it’s fun, it’s just a new way to generate material, I guess.

14H: Is that important, to find new ways to to generate and reenter your work?

JT: Sometimes. Yes, because life gets in the way. I have a full time job, and lots of distractions it feels. If I don’t have something that’s really tugging at me, I can easily fall out of the habit so this is definitely a trick.


More from this interview on our site!

An interview with Jill Tidman by Fourteen Hills: The SFSU Review fiction editor Fernando Pujals

Check out Jill Tidman's story in issue 15.2 of Fourteen Hills: The SFSU Review. Issue 15.2 is virtually sold out, but we may be able to scrounge up a few copies if you contact us.

- Fourteen Hills: The SFSU Review Editors

Oh What A Night: Thank You To Everyone Who Came To Our Release Party!

Wow. We certainly celebrated the release of Fourteen Hills issue 16.1 with style. Or, should we say, with amazing readers, applause-happy attendees, great food, even better drink, and raffle prizes galore. A full report on the evening will be up soon, but we wanted to send a quick shout-out to all the new people who came, enjoyed, and signed our mailing list (hi!).

While you wait (breathlessly?) for our release party recap, please check out Evan Karp's full report of the event in the Examiner. He has video of all of our readers including Stephen Elliott. So even if you couldn't make it, you'll feel like you did.

When you watch the videos in Evan's story, see if you can spot the pieces that were just published in issue 16.1. They're all wonderful. We promise.

The new issue won't be in stores until 2010, but you can still order a subscription here.

-Leanne M., Fourteen Hills staff

Fourteen Hills Goes Culinary: Gourmet Menu for Wednesday's Release Party

Not only do we at Fourteen Hills love showing off our contributors’ work and beautiful new issues, but we are also know a thing or two about food! In honor of issue 16.1, which we will be launching into the atmosphere tomorrow, December 16, our fabulous party at the San Francisco Motorcycle Club will feature a full gourmet menu prepared by our very own copy editor—me!

You’re in for a treat. Nothing canned, frozen or packaged is used—I make everything from scratch, and will even use ingredients from my organic garden.

The menu will be Middle East meets North Africa. I’ll be preparing classic Middle Eastern fare such as hummous, muhammara, tzatsiki and baba ghanoush, fresh falafel, pita bread and vegetables. From Turkey, I will be making Cerkes Tavugu, or Circassian braised chicken in a walnut sauce. From Afghanistan comes a pumpkin, ground beef and yogurt dish called kaddo bowrani. From North Africa, I will be making a Moroccan vegetable tagine with harissa,* and couscous.


My falafel isn’t made from a boxed mix, or even pre-made garbanzo flour. I make it starting from whole dried garbanzo beans, which I soak overnight and blend with fresh spices and herbs, then fry in trans-fat-free rice bran oil. For the tzatsiki sauce, I make the yogurt myself.

Hummus? If you’ve only ever had store-bought hummus—pasty, gritty and tasting mostly of garlic—you haven’t had hummus. I make mine starting with dry beans, soak them overnight and simmer them, then pop the tough hulls off by hand. Then I put them through a food mill and blend them until silky smooth with fresh tahini, French sea salt, a balanced amount of roasted garlic, good olive oil, fresh ground cumin seeds and lemon juice from my Meyer lemon tree out back.

I will be making tabbouli with home-grown, late-season heirloom tomatoes and fresh parsley just picked from my garden.

Kaddo bowrani is an Afghani dish made with browned and roasted pumpkin drizzled in a (homemade) yogurt sauce, then topped with ground beef cooked with fresh turmeric root, coriander, tomato paste and garlic. I will be using one of my homegrown Musquée de Provence pumpkins for this dish.

Muhammara is a dip originally from Syria, made of roasted red peppers, walnuts, bread crumbs, oil and pomegranate molasses. It has gentle sweetness from the red peppers cut with a touch of heat from red pepper flakes, earthiness from the ground walnuts, and a pleasing texture.  I make my own pomegranate molasses by simmering a bottle of POM pomegranate juice down until it is thick and syrupy, no more than 5 or 6 tablespoons. I will be using some of my homegrown peppers for this dish.

If I don’t give out from making all this fresh food, I will try to make a fabulous cake. If not, there will definitely be sweets there to complete the meal. I look forward to serving you my food at the party, so please come hungry. The party starts at 7pm.

-Janna K. Denig, Fourteen Hills Staff

*Vegan dishes include the Moroccan tagine, hummus, baba ghanoush, and tabbouli. No peanuts or peanut products will be used.

Tons of Amazing Raffle Prizes Can Be Yours at Wednesday’s Fourteen Hills’ Release Party

When Fourteen Hills Literary Magazine throws a party, we like to get the whole community involved. One of our favorite parts about the biannual Fourteen Hills release parties, aside from the wonderful readers who come to share their work, is the exciting assortment of businesses who donate items for the Fourteen Hills release party raffles. This year we have an impressive selection of prizes including Clown Cabaret tickets, indie bookstore gift certificates, sock monkeys, sake, and so much more. Here's a list of participating businesses and the items they donated. We hope everyone who shops, eats, or drinks at these businesses will give them a big thank you for supporting independent literature next time you visit.

If you haven't bought your raffle tickets yet you can still buy them at the San Francisco Motorcycle Club the night of the party (Dec. 16th @ 7pm). Raffle tickets will be sold for three for $5 or one for $2. All the proceeds go to Fourteen Hills Press to help keep our non-profit journal publishing and partying for years to come!

Prizes for Writers and Bibliophiles

Free 1000 Word Translation English to Spanish, from Auerbach International (no poetry please- Fiction/nonfiction only).

$40 Gift Certificate to Pegasus and Pendragon bookstores. There are three bookstore locations where this gift certificate can be redeemed, so take a break from SF and make a trip to the East Bay!

Pegasus Books: 1855 Solano Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94704 (510) 525-6888
Pegasus Books Downtown: 2349 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA (510) 649-1320
Pendragon Books: 5560 College Avenue, Oakland, CA 94618, (510) 652-6259

$25 Gift Card for University Press Books, “In Berkeley, a place for books, people, and minds on fire” 2430 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA 94704 ph: (510) 548-0585

$25 Gift Card for Half Price Books, a nationwide chain of used bookstores, selling books, music, movies and more! There are three stores in the Bay Area - Fremont, Berkeley and Concord. The gift card is good at all stores nationwide and never expires.

$10 Gift Certificate for West Portal Bookshop, a locally-owned, independent bookstore located in the heart of the West Portal neighborhood, just two blocks down from the West Portal MUNI Station. Check out their website for special promotions, events, and readings.

Three-Pack of limited edition, full-color illustrated books by Omnibucket. Prize includes: The Book of CLAV, God's Acre, Eleventy Billion Miles Away (complete with sound track!)

New hardcopy of David Carr's memoir, Night of the Gun, a book written by an investigative journalist who decides to report on his own life as a former drug addict.

Prizes to Entertain You

Free Tickets to Clown Cabaret at the Climate Theater, 1st Monday in the month of recipient's choosing, 7pm showing ($30 value). Climate Theater is located at 285 9th Street. At the corner of 9th and Folsom in San Francisco.

Free Movies from Four-Star Video, SF DVD/video rental place in Bernal Heights. Prize is for a one-month subscription (called "Kenflix," a la Netflix, where you can rent a certain number of movies for a flat rate in a one-month period--estimated value: $25-30) OR credit for five movie rentals.

Two Tickets to Jewish Theatre San Francisco, a hip little theater located in the Mission that features new plays by Jewish writers or utilizing Jewish themes. That said, it is an expertly run place that wants new audience members of any denomination and background. They often feature one "pay-as-you-can" night for students for every performance.

Prizes to Eat, Drink, and Be Merry With

Private Wine Tasting for 10 at Periscope Cellars Winery. You and 9 guests will tour Periscope Cellars, a leader of the Urban Wine Revolution. Winemaker Brendan Elasion will guide you through a barrel tasting from the previous harvest as well as his award-winning current releases. Operating out of a WWII submarine repair facility, Periscope Cellars works with small, family growers with a focus on hands-on growing and wine making to yield wines of unique character and quality.

$25 Gift Card for the Missouri Lounge, located at 2600 San Pablo Ave (between Carleton St & Parker St), Missouri Lounge is the hippest bar in Berkeley, offering: steak/chicken/sausage/pork/veggie hoagies, kabobs, ribs, full bar, dancing, djs, outdoor/indoor venue.

$15 Gift Certificates (2) for Mercury Café, donated by owner, Nick Parker. Mercury Café is located at 201 Octavia Street, SF in Hayes Valley, is a beautiful space with high ceilings and art by Hal Robins. They serve excellent coffee from De La Paz Rosters in the Mission. They also have Bridgeport IPA on draft, and a really nice house Chianti. They serve mostly organic foods, house-made pies, and the owner plays great music.

Free Entrance for Two + 2 Drink Tickets for 222 Hyde, a nightclub featuring a full bar, small plates, appetizers, and handmade gourmet pizzas, as well as one of the best sound systems in San Francisco. Hosting some of the finest DJs in the world in their basement lounge, this recently renovated nightspot has consistently been a Yelp and local favorite since opening its doors in 2004.

$25 Gift Card from Specialty's Cafe & Bakery, with numerous locations throughout the Bay Area including 8 in San Francisco.

1 Bottle of Gekkeikan Sake, from their state-of-the-art brewing facility in Folsom, Cali.

Fresh Roasted Beans from Four Barrel Coffee. The lucky winner of this raffle prize will receive hand-picked & roasted coffee beans from the newest member of San Francisco's coffee elite. Four Barrel Coffee is at 375 Valencia Street @ 15th.

$10 Certificate for Peet's Coffee & Tea, the premier specialty coffee and tea company in the United States. Peet's buys the highest quality beans in the world, artisan roasts every bean by hand to order, and delivers all of its coffee quickly for superior freshness no matter where it is sold.

$10 Gift Certificate for Starbucks, inspiring and nurturing the human spirit— one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.

Prizes Both Artful and Heartful

$200 gift certificate towards a purchase from Dark Garden Corsetry and Couture Using the finest fabrics, Dark Garden's amazingly talented craftspeople skillfully build each corset and couture garment.

$25 Gift Card for Under One Roof, the only non-profit retail store of its kind in the entire world, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars annually for San Francisco Bay Area men, women, and children living with HIV/AIDS.

Super Sock Monkeys by Becky: 100% handmade, unique plush animal

Metal United States Map (valued at $125) from Copper Leaf Studios. This metal artwork was created using a non-acid etching process and environmentally-friendly materials whenever possible. The designs are a mixture of organic and geometric, and the colors and textures are like a good cup of tea – sometimes rich, sometimes soothing, but perfectly satisfying in small, thoughtful doses.

-Keely, Fourteen Hills staff

Hear Fourteen Hills 16.1 Contributor Rae Freudenberger Friday on Pirate Cat Radio

Rae Freudenberger, whose poem “Red Light, Green Light” appears in the upcoming issue of Fourteen Hills, will read her work Friday, Dec. 11, at 3 p.m. on 87.9 FM, San Francisco’s Pirate Cat Radio. You can listen live at www.piratecatradio.com.

Rae lives in San Francisco and is a recent grad of S.F. State’s MA program. She is the winner of the Denise L. Scott Memorial Poetry Contest and has been published in various journals including L.A. Miscellany and S.F. State’s own Transfer.

You can also see Rae read at the Fourteen Hills release party, Wednesday, Dec. 16, along with several other contributors to the new issue as well as Stephen Elliot, author of The Adderall Diaries. The party starts 7 p.m. at the San Francisco Motorcycle Club, Folsom and 18th streets. RSVP on Facebook if you'll be able to join us. See you there.

-Leigh Ann D., Fourteen Hills staff

2009 Winner of the Bambi Holmes Award for Emerging Writers: Bay Area Writer, Jill Tidman's “This Is How I Saw It”

Fourteen Hills has selected Bay Area writer, Jill Tidman’s story, "This is How I Saw It" from Issue 15.2 of the journal as the winner of the Bambi Holmes Award for Emerging Writers.

By a generous donation from the family of Bambi Holmes (1946-1996), an annual literary award has been established to continue her lifelong patronage of aspiring writers.

The Holmes Award honors an emerging fiction writer published in Fourteen Hills during the year with a cash prize of $500 — “emerging” defined as not having published a book-length work as of yet. Each year (when funds are available), the Editor in Chief selects a story published in the Winter/Spring and Summer/Fall issues to receive the Holmes Award in Prose. 

If you were one of the many who attended the Fourteen Hills reading at this year’s San Francisco LitCrawl, then you had a chance to see Jill Tidman perform her piece in person. If you didn’t make the event, you can still hear her memorable performance right here.

Of course, you can also buy the issue containing her short story at any of these bookstores nationwide, or directly from Fourteen Hills.

All work published in Fourteen Hills will be considered for the award; no special entry is required. For details on submitting, visit www.14hills.net.

Since Issue 16.1 will be out in just a few weeks, you may be able to spot the next recipient of the Holmes Award within its pages. We look forward to hearing what you think.

-Leanne M., Fourteen Hills staff

The Fourteen Hills Release Party: Here’s How To Get Your Friends to Attend

There are many reasons to attend the Fourteen Hills Fall 2009 Release Party, but no reason to go alone. It is never hard to convince a fellow writer to go to a literary reading.  Readings are a great source of inspiration, a grand opportunity for social networking, and a better resource than craigslist for potential hot dates.

However, speaking from experience, it can be tough to get your nonliterary (AKA employed) friends jazzed up about a literary event. The important thing to remember is that the Fourteen Hills Fall 2009 Release Party, coming up on Wednesday, December 16, is a party, and a free one at that. It just happens to feature up-and-coming writers reading their work.

Fabulous Fourteen Hills contributors are flying in from all over the country (or walking two blocks from their apartment in the Mission) to read for you, including Rhea DeRose-Weiss, Rae Freudenberger, Austin LaGrone, Gabrielle Myers, Marcus Pactor, Marc Stone, Katie Cappello, Gregory Mahrer, Sarah Cohen Powell, and special guest Stephen Elliott, author of The Adderall Diaries. You will also have a rare chance to view the original work of our featured artists, The Pfeiffer Sisters.

But that’s not all! We’ve got the makings of a real party that will have you rubbing your eyes and downing coffee on Thursday morning. Throughout the evening, DJ Martin Hodge will be spinning dance music so you can get your groove on. There will be delicious homemade food, a chance to purchase current and back issues, and best of all, tons and tons of amazing raffle prizes!

Raffle tickets are just $2 each or three for $5. Prizes include but are not limited to: A private wine tasting for 10 at Periscope Cellars Winery, free movies from Four Star Video, limited edition books by Omibucket, tickets to Clown Cabaret, Jewish Theatre SF, and 222 Hyde, gift certificates from Mercury Café, Under One Roof, and Half Price Books, assorted handmade Sock Monsters, a $200 custom corset from Dark Garden, and many, many more!

Still not convinced?  Well on top of a chance to hear this great group of writers, dance the night away, and win amazing prizes, the Fourteen Hills Release Party is being held in the San Francisco Motorcycle club, one of the most unique venues in the city. Take a look at pictures from last year’s event.

The San Francisco Motorcycle Club was founded in 1904 and is the oldest motorcycle club on the West Coast. The clubhouse has been in this very spot for sixty-five years, and is plenty spacious enough to hold the large crowd of eager partiers we expect on December 16.








Wednesday, December 16th      
7 pm to 1 am
San Francisco Motorcycle Club
2194 Folsom Street (at 18th St.), SF

RSVP on Facebook

We hope that you and your friends will be part of the fun.

-Stephen R., Fourteen Hills staff

The Michael Rubin Book Award Predicts Great Careers In Writing: A Look At Past Winners

While the writer’s life is generally occupied by glamour and celebrity, we all know that there are certain challenges, for example, finishing your book. Then there’s the smallish chore of getting it published.

In his debut collection, D.W. Lichtenberg proved his immense literary talent: The Ancient Book of Hip, released November 18, 2009, was the recipient of the 2009 Michael Rubin Book Award. Established in honor of beloved professor Michael Rubin, the award is funded by the San Francisco State University Creative Writing Program. The winning work is selected by an independent writer or editor and is published annually by Fourteen Hills Press. Each year the award alternates between books of poetry and fiction.

The honor of winning the Michael Rubin Book Award (MRBA) extends beyond publication. If part of the point of an award is to herald new talent, the Michael Rubin Book Award seems to predict future success as well. In winning the award, D.W. Lichtenberg joins a long list of recipients who, since winning, have continued to produce works of acclaim, and establish thriving writing lives.

Past recipients include Kate Small, who in 1999 won the Michael Rubin Book Award for The Gap in the Letter C, a “fierce, tender, reckless, precise, alarming, loveley, and unforgettable” collection of eleven short stories (says Michelle Carter). Along with the Michael Rubin Book Award, Small won the Lorian Hemingway prize, a Vogelstein Foundation grant, and in 2002 she received one of 21 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships for prose. Her work has appeared in Nimrod, Prism International, The Boston Review, The Madison Review, and in the anthology Best New American Voices, edited by Tobias Wolff.

Part of what makes Small’s writing so inspiring is the diversity of perspectives and experiences she delves into, and the places and ways she finds her inspiration. Among her more recent projects is Maximum Sunlight, inspired by three days at the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in Washington, DC. “I watched people come and go,” she says, describing the project. “I became fascinated by the intimate, confrontational aspect of Maya Lin's Wall: one must go close to read its texts, and in so doing, face one's own reflection in the polished granite. The wall's visitor's are various, but published writing which explores their relationship with it, isn't. I hope that Mira, its speaker, will put some pressure on the phenomenon of 'compassion fatigue' in America.”

In 2009, Robin Romm published the memoir The Mercy Papers. It was the New York Times Editor’s Choice Book and it received an A grade from Entertainment Weekly. Her 2007 collection of stories The Mother Garden was a finalist for the PEN USA prize and won the Northern California Independent Booksellers Book of the Year Award. It all began in 2005, when she won the Michael Rubin Book Award for her first collection of stories, The Tilt, which acclaimed writer Brian Evenson described as “a startling first collection.” Many of the stories in The Tilt later appeared in The Mother Garden, her first major publication.

These days, Romm lives in New Mexico with her boyfriend and writer Don Waters, and their cattle dog, Mercy. She shares her wisdom and imparts her talents to her students in the MFA writing program at New Mexico State University. Readers can find more of her fabulous work in numerous national journals including Threepenny Review, One Story, and Tin House, as well as many anthologies.

Past winner Jenny Pritchett was twice honored in 2008: her debut collection, At or Near the Surface, won the 2008 Michael Rubin Book Award, judged by Tin House managing editor Holly MacArthur, and her story “Bugaboo” was selected by Steve Almond for the Best of the Web 2008 anthology from Dzanc Books. Her work has appeared in Southwest Review, Northwest Review, Boulevard, Salt Hill, and Fiction Attic. She has also been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Jenny lives and teaches here in San Francisco, offering classes available to the public at the Writing Salon.

Poet, playwright, writer and songwriter Elizabeth Treadwell won the 1997 MRBA for her work Eleanor Ramsey: the Queen of Cups. She has published seven books and seven chapbooks. Along with these prolific literary credentials, her work includes music and performance pieces. Treadwell wrote the lyrics for the song JoLynn, performed by Molly Symns and her band, co-wrote the lyrics for Yolanda with Paul Jackson, performed by Stiff Richards. She wrote the play La Gnossienne and co-authored the screenplay Nonstop with Carol Treadwell.

Stay tuned for a post about the Michael Rubin Book Award submission guidelines, an award open to the student body of San Francisco State University. Anticipate an early 2010 submission deadline. In the meantime, dive in and read some of the great writing from past award winners.

-Nina, Fourteen Hills staff

Thanks To Fourteen Hills Archives: Ray Bradbury’s “What I Do Is Me – For That I Came”

We’re here today to give thanks to cranberries, football, and poetry from great prose writers.

In the Fall of 1999, one of our editors commissioned a poem from the legendary science fiction short story writer and author of “Fahrenheit 451.” Proving to everyone that sometimes all you have to do is ask, Mr. Ray Bradbury sent Fourteen Hills a special poem from his collection. (Did you realize The Collected Poems of Ray Bradbury was published in 1982? Neither did we.)

And boy, was it special. “What I Do Is Me – For That I Came” is an ode to Gerard Manley Hopkins (the man who penned Pied Beauty – “Glory be to God for dappled things”).

From the first line to the last, Bradbury’s ode is a very … unusual … celebration of the Victorian poet. He seems to be commemorating the miraculous fusing of genes that created a literary genius 

Here’s the way the poem ends. See for yourself how even a master of words can occasionally fail to wow:

Ten thousand futures share your blood each instant;
Each drop of blood a cloned electric twin of you.
In merest wound on hand read replicas of what I planned and knew
Before your birth, then hid it in your heart.
No part of you that does not snug and hold and hide
The self that you will be if faith abide.
What you do is thee. For that I gave you birth.
Be that. So be the only you that’s truly you on Earth.

Dear Hopkins. Gentle Manley. Rare Gerard. Fine Name.
What we do is us. Because of you. For that we came.

To read the full poem, and make your own judgments, visit Issue 6.1. And stay tuned as we continue to highlight forgotten gems from our literary magazine’s archives.

Happy thanksgiving, dear readers.

-Leanne M., Fourteen Hills staff

"Ordinary Genius" and "Lucifer at the Starlight" out now from contributor Kim Addonizio

Oakland resident and prolific poet Kim Addonizio, who had her first publication right here in our literary magazine, in issue 4.2, has released two books this year.

One is her fifth collection of poems, titled Lucifer at the Starlite, and the other is a book on craft for struggling and beginning poets, called Ordinary Genius: A Guide for the Poet Within.

Ordinary Genius has received much praise since its release in Spring 2009. Lucifer at the Starlite was released in September, and the San Diego Union-Tribune called it a lyrically intense collection from “one of the nation’s most provocative and edgy poets.” You can read the title poem from the collection here.

Addonizio is also the author of at least nine other books including a novel in verse and The Poet’s Companion. Of writing books on craft, she says in a radio interview for New Letters with Robert Stewart, that her own writing is informed by reading other poets: “I read something that interests me and then I try to figure out how it works and then I try to show somebody else how it works... How do I learn what I learn, and how do I translate that to somebody else?”

If you live in the Bay Area, you can catch Addonizio on December 1 at Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park (more info here) and on December 16, 7 pm, at By the Bay Studio in Sausalito (more info here).

If you’re outside the Bay Area, you can hear Kim read January 11, 7:30 p.m. at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., or January 21, 7:30 p.m. at Seattle Arts and Lectures, Ilsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall, Seattle, WA. She is a passionate and musical reader and I highly recommend grabbing any opportunity you get to see her in person.

-Leigh Ann, Fourteen Hills staff

Our Own D.W. Lichtenberg: Too Cool to be “Hip”

San Francisco’s Space Gallery was a sea of hipster sunglasses last night at the release party of D.W. Lichtenberg’s first book, The Ancient Book of Hip. The sunglasses are just one of Lichtenberg’s ironic gimmicks, in addition to his signature baseball caps and poems stuffed into tiny envelopes. At one point, he asked his audience to put on their glasses and pose for a photo.

“Does anybody have a digital camera I can use?” he asked. “Man, you guys look so cool.” And, just like that, our very own D.W. had spun hipsterdom on its own sarcastic head. “Just so you know, the book’s name and introduction are bullshit. If you didn’t get that, well then, you didn’t get the book.”

The evening started with an introduction given by Matthew Clark Davison, Fourteen Hills Literary Magazine’s advisor and lecturer at San Francisco State University. Fourteen Hills Editor-in-Chief Christopher Hayter described the Michael Rubin Book Award, which is awarded to one SFSU creative writing student each year, and emphasized how hard Lichtenberg worked to write, edit, and market his own work.

“This guy is a marketing whiz,” Hayter said. “He wrote the book while living in New York, and since then has created his own website, found his own illustrator, designed the book’s layout, and lined up readings both in California and on the East Coast. If you want to learn anything about writing your own book and getting it out there, buy Dan a beer and get his thoughts.”

Hollie Hardy, one of Fourteen Hills Literary Magzine’s poetry editors, introduced Lichtenberg’s illustrator, David Gerbstadt, who had flown out from Philadelphia to wallpaper the Space Gallery in original artwork, all created specifically for that night. Gerbstadt had prepared more than 300 drawings, all of which were sold for $1. Many of the smaller drawings were done on pages from discarded library books. 

Other presenters included fellow poetry editor Tera Ragan, who introduced poet Tess Patalano. Patalano, who is in her second year at SFSU's creative writing program, shared a series of poems, including a pantoum about a renegade bull at an illicit New York rodeo. She was followed by Fourteen Hills contributor Truong Tran, who is a poet, visual artist, and teacher. Lichtenberg worked as a teaching assistant in Tran’s Poetry Workshop last year, and so Tran decided to honor him in two ways: first, with a new baseball cap, and second, with a piece called A Mix Tape For Daniel Lichtenberg.

“I wanted to gather a mix tape that spoke to this new generation of writers,” said Tran after the event. “Dan is a part of that generation.”

When asked how he felt about working with Lichtenberg on the book, Gerbstadt replied that he was “...so honored that he picked me for the cover, and that I got to come all the way out here for his first reading.” Gerbstadt survived a harrowing accident with a semi, which Lichtenberg references in Poem for Dave Gerbstadt.

“Next time I see him, I am gonna give him a high five,” Lichtenberg read from the poem as he walked across the floor to the artist and offered him his hand. 

All in all, The Ancient Book of Hip release party was a rousing success. By the end of the night, the Space Gallery was teeming with Lichtenberg’s supporters in sunglasses, eagerly buying Gerbstadt’s art right off the walls. And this was just the first in a series of reading events Lichtenberg has planned from coast to coast; for more information on future readings, check out his website.

Something tells us that this is just the beginning of something far hipper than even D.W.L. has yet to imagine.

--Julia, Fourteen Hills staff

Three more reasons to attend "The Ancient Book of Hip" Release Party: Poets Truong Tran and Tess Patalano, and Artist David Gerbstadt

Besides hearing D.W. Lichtenberg read from his Michael Rubin Award-winner The Ancient Book of Hip, attending Wednesday’s Fourteen Hills Press-sponsored release party also affords you a chance to hear an up-and-coming Bay Area poet and a respected writer, and to take home a work of art for next to nothing.

First on the evening’s agenda is Tess Patalano. Tess received her BA in Creative Writing from Hamilton College in New York and will receive her MA in Creative Writing (poetry) from San Francisco State (a program that has produced many fabulous writers, if I do say so myself). Her poetry emphasizes the beautifully uncomfortable aspects of life. She reads at Wide Open Mic at San Francisco State the first and last Wednesdays of every month and at Brainwash Cafe Open Mic on Monday nights in San Francisco. 


Second to read will be Truong Tran. Truong has five collections of poetry and a children’s book to his name, and was awarded the San Francisco Poetry Center Book Prize in 2002 for dust and conscience. Claire Light, in a review for KQED, said of his most recent work: “’Four letter words’ is the most resoundingly accomplished of all of Tran's books; every piece is a new effort, every page offers a new angle.” Truong is also a visual artist and was featured in Fourteen Hills 15.1. You can check out his art at gnourtnart.com. Truong teaches creative writing at San Francisco State and Mills College.  

On display will be works by Pennsylvania-based artist David Gerbstadt, who created the cover for The Ancient Book of Hip. Gerbstadt sees art in everything around him and uses whatever’s within reach to make his colorful, ecstatic multimedia pieces. Gerbstadt also has an incredible life story (he survived miraculously after being hit by a truck while riding his bike in 2007) and a viral YouTube presence. You can check him out on MySpace and YouTube. Gerbstadt’s art will be for sale and there's no way you can't afford to take some home. He believes in sharing art, and used to leave his creations in public places for the taking. He now rarely charges more than 10 dollars for a piece; his MySpace page advertises everything for a dollar.

Doors open at 7 p.m. on Nov. 18 at Space Gallery, 1141 Polk Street, San Francisco. Cost is $10 (for a good cause) and includes a free book, three amazing performances, killer art, and a DJ set. RSVP now on Facebook. (21 and older, please.)

See you there!

-- Leigh Ann D., Fourteen Hills staff

A response to HTML Giant's blog post: "Fourteen Hills, WTF?"

As editors of a small, mostly-student-run publication produced in the context of a university course, as much as we hate to say it, the staff of Fourteen Hills sometimes makes mistakes. Recently, we were called out on one of our favorite lit blogs, HTML GIANT, in their post "Fourteen Hills, WTF?" for mailing a form rejection letter to an author more than two years after we received the submission.

Here's the story: About a month ago, the current editors of Fourteen Hills were cleaning the office and found a bag of sealed, self-addressed envelopes buried under a pile of back issues. This bag had been misplaced or lost in the shuffle by former editors of the magazine (an editor-in-chief at Fourteen Hills stays EIC for a max of one year). But now it was two years later, and our editors had two options:

1) Throw out the bag and pretend it didn't exist. Letters get lost in the mail all the time.

2) Add a few extra cents of postage to each letter and drop them in the mailbox.

The editors chose the latter. The number of letters was substantial, so writing a personal note to each writer while under the deadlines for our current issue and our single-author book didn't seem feasible. Our managing editor explains: "We often get emails from writers wondering about the status of submissions. Even though we weren't on staff when some of these people submitted, we still do our best to try to track the submissions down and respond. In this case, we think it was better to respond really late than never."

"Perhaps we should've written apologies to each of the writers whose envelopes were in that bag," says Matthew Clark Davison, who has been the Faculty Advisor for the magazine for the past two years. "We've really come a long way in implementing systems to make sure the people who consider us for their creative writing are treated as well, if not better, than the authors published in the bigger publications. The magazine also exists in the context of an MFA course, there are a lot of hands in the process. Fourteen Hills receives hundreds of submissions per month and given the context, we have a great record of responding according to our published turnaround times. Once in a while, however, something slips. We offer this as more of an explanation than an excuse, and we're sorry if the authors who took the time to send us their work were offended by our over/under sight."

The current budget crisis with public education in California has been well-publicized. To offer some perspective, since 1994, Fourteen Hills has been operating with the same university-funded annual budget of $7,000.

Most Universities (like Emerson College, University of Iowa, Georgia, Massachusetts) who produce, distribute, and promote books have full-time staffs. They pay graphic designers. They have office support and up-to-date equipment provided by the university. 90% of our magazine is put together by unpaid students who have an interest in learning the process. Fourteen Hills pays one graduate student to take on all of the above-described responsibilities and run a class.

Additionally, Fourteen Hills Press, out of the same budget and labor force, produces and promotes a book of one of the University's most promising students each year. While university funding for this publication has been cut, the staff and students have kept publishing it because we really do believe that what we do makes a difference in the lives of writers.

For comparison's sake, Fourteen Hills recently interviewed a staff member at Ploughshares, Emerson College's literary magazine that also offers a first-book award to one of their contributors (essentially they do what we at Fourteen Hills do).

* The staff person said they operated on an annual budget of $260,000 (and at the time of the interview were in negotiations for an increase).
* At the time the staff member reported that they had two full-time salaried employees that are able to apply for additional funding grants.

Fourteen Hills is operating a budget $253,000 less than Ploughshares. Yet, because of our efforts, our authors have won many of the same awards as theirs. Because of the quality of our contributors' work, we also receive close to the same number of submissions as our sister publications, and we haven't always been prepared for the ever-increasing demand.

The staff recently implemented a new system to track every submission and follow-up communication. "It's a lot of work," says Managing Editor Dan Lichtenberg, "but we do it so these things won't happen in the future, when we are no longer on staff."

If you were one of the writers to receive a form rejection letter from us two years after the fact, please let us know and we'll send you any back issue we have in stock. Your choice. And please accept our deepest apologies. In the meantime, submit again. We'll get back to you. We promise.

-Fourteen Hills Editors

We Won! Fourteen Hills’ D.W. Lichtenberg Takes Home Title of Literary Death Match SF Champion!

You are a spectacle; a roving, plodding panther on the stage. It takes balls to turn your back on the crowd, said performance judge, cartoonist Michael Capozzola, when discussing D.W. Lichtenberg’s mesmerizingly raw reading at Literary Death Match SF on Friday night.

D.W. Lichtenberg read a short story called Jason Look about an aimless twenty-something who breaks up with his girlfriend, quits his job, and goes on a gum-shoplifting, chain-smoking bender; all in the name of reclaiming his story.

Shoving stick after stick of Juicy Fruit Gum into his mouth while pacing in circles across the stage, Lichtenberg kept judges and audience alike in a constant state of suspense over what would happen next, both in the story and on stage. Several judges later confessed that the performance had kept them in a constant state of anxiety over whether Lichtenberg would finally trip over his microphone cord and tumble off the stage.

Such worries were thankfully unfounded as Lichtenberg did not falter, neither in his footing nor in his performance in the competition.

Lichtenberg beat out Seth Harwood, author of the novel Jack Wakes Up, in a head-to-head reading competition. He then cemented his victory by besting Charlie Haas, Oakland journalist and author of the novel The Enthusiast in a rousing game of musical chairs.

D.W. Lichtenberg, one of the youngest readers ever to perform at Literary Death Match, is now the youngest reader to have won the competition (pending fact-check; 23 at official time of victory).

If you missed Literary Death Match SF, you can view videos from the match posted by Evan Karp over at Examiner.com.

You can also see D.W. Lichtenberg perform this Wednesday at the Space Gallery at 1141 Polk St. in San Francisco at the release party for his new book, The Ancient Book of Hip. DWL will be doing some other bay-area readings, found at: http://www.dwlichtenberg.com/readings

-Keely, Fourteen Hills Staff

Fourteen Hills' D.W. Lichtenberg Battles It Out At Literary Death Match San Francisco

This Friday, ladies and gentlemen, we are going to witness the most anticipated word-to-word match in the history of professional literature, the Literary Death Match Championship of San Francisco.

Are you ready?  Literature fans, are you ready?  For the thousands in attendance and the millions watching around the world, from the literary capitol of the world, San Francisco, ladies and gentlemen, let’s get ready to rumble.

Your judges for tonight’s contest will be Porchlight’s Arline Klatte, cartoonist Michael Capozzola, and Opium’s Todd Zuniga.

And now, on your feet, time to greet your home-town poet, D. W. Lichtenberg, from San Francisco State University, representing Fourteen Hills Press, by way of New York and Philadelphia.  He is 23 years old, the author of The Ancient Book of Hip, and the winner of the 2009 Michael Rubin Book Award.

And now ladies and gentlemen, from the Elbo Room, let’s get ready to rumble!

(O.K., fine. So maybe San Francisco's Literary Death Match is an event that's been happening
once a month since 2006. Still, it isn't every month that Fourteen Hills gets to root for one of its own.)

Here's the info. Be there and cheer loud!

DATE: Friday, November 13, 2009

TIME: Doors open at 6:30pm, show at 7:15 p.m.

LOCATION: The Elbo Room, 647 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA

-Robert, Fourteen Hills staff

A Tribute to Virgil Saurez, Leading Cuban American Writer Published In Fourteen Hills Vol. 7.2

I was recently flipping through the pages of a back issue of Fourteen Hills. And what did I find? The work of Virgil Suarez, a poet whose work I have admired for many years. Being a writer of color
myself, I was already blown away at what emerging writers of color were being printed in Fourteen Hills. But seeing the renowned Cuban-American writer had me smiling even more. Virgil Suarez is one of the leading poets in the Cuban American community. He has been nominated for five Pushcart prizes, won the Latino Literature Hall of Fame Poetry Prize, has held a fellowship with the National Endowment for the Arts, and has been published in Best American Poetry.

In Suarez's piece Dona Inez’s Abecedarion Del Amor, he entertains readers with his musical voice.

*

Absence is her daily companion
by the porch swing, white walls

clandestine doves on the eaves
diurnal in their love making

*

The music in his verse is something reminiscent of Nicholas Guillen, except Virgil Suarez already comes to us in English. His simple verses and practiced cadence act like musical notes tuned by the strings of his heart and mind. You can read this piece for yourself in the archives on 14hills.net, volume 7.2, and you can purchase the issue for only $5.00 including s&h direct from us. It's also available at Small Press Distribution. I hope you enjoy his work as much as I did when I discovered him in Fourteen Hills.

For more info on Suarez, visit poets.org.

-Robert, Fourteen Hills staff

Book Release Party: The Ancient Book of Hip by D.W. Lichtenberg!

On November 18th, D.W. Lichtenberg will read from The Ancient Book of Hip, recipient of the 2009 Michael Rubin Book Award, judged by poet John Skoyles. Described as an exploration into the phenomenon of hip, the book is a case study, a documentation, a journaling, a bunch of poems about girls, sex, cigarettes, PBR and everything else that is the world of hip. The book will be released by Fourteen Hills Press on Nov. 18, 2009.

WHERE: The Space Gallery SF, 1141 Polk St. (at Sutter St.)
WHEN: November 18, 2009 Doors at 7PM
HOW MUCH: $10.00 · Admission includes free copy of book
WHO: Everyone 21+
WHAT ELSE: Guest readers Truong Tran and Tess Patalano. Artwork by David Gerbstadt. DJ sets by DJ Ty Styx and DJ Snow Crash.

D.W.L. Hails from the Main Line of Philadelphia. He attended NYU where he studied film. His credits include associate editor on feature film Fifth Form, and camera operator on feature documentary Fool in a Bubble. He is the author of the bestselling unwritten novel I Ate Too Much For Dinner But I Always Have Room For Curmudgeon. The Ancient Book of Hip is his debut collection.

The Michael Rubin Book Award is awarded annually in honor of former SFSU professor Michael Rubin. Funded by SFSU's creative writing department, Fourteen Hills Press releases a book of fiction or poetry, alternating each year, judged by an independent writer or editor.

If you didn't make it out to see D.W.L. perform at Lit Crawl this year, we expect to see you next Wednesday for the book release party!

-Stephen Rosenshein, Fourteen Hills staff

Recent contributor is now "Shoplifting from American Apparel"

Prepare yourself for a thirteen-second introduction to the world of Tao Lin:



Fourteen Hills published Lin's short story Cull the Steel Heart, Melt the Ice One, Love the Weak in Volume 12.2. His poetry, short story collections, and novellas reflect an emerging trend in the Fourteen Hills aesthetic: he knows how to spin "hip" on its head.

Lin is a 26-year-old New York writer whose latest novella, Shoplifting from American Apparel , was published by Melville House Publishing in September. To get a taste of his irreverent voice, read this exclusive excerpt he published on the blog Hipster Runoff.

A Florida native, Lin migrated to New York to study and write. In 2007, his first short story collection Bed and novel Eeeee Eee Eeee were published simultaneously. His 2008 poetry collection Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy has been used in college psychology courses around the country. (You can read the first seven pages on the website. Sample passage: "the secret of life is that i miss you, and this describes life / tonight my heart feels shiny and calm as a soft wet star / i describe it from a distance, then move quickly away")

Although his work has been described as "Camus' The Stranger or sociopath?", moody, funny, and revolutionary, his imperceptible sense of irony is consistent throughout. His word choice is deliberate, a snapshot into the internet chat generation. In a Bookslut interview, Lin admits that he loves the trickery of titles like Eeeee Eee Eeee, or his personal blog, whose url is the mischievious http://heheheheheheheeheheheehehe.com/. As with any new media-savvy writer, he can also be found on Twitter and Tumblr.

If you live in New York and want to witness his personal style in action, stop by his next reading at Center for Performance Research in Williamsburg on Wednesday, November 11, at 8 pm.

To read his Fourteen Hills piece, visit our archives. Back issues are available for only $5.

-Julia, Fourteen Hills Staff

Vol. 1.1 contributor, Bay Area Poet Gillian Conoley, Reads From Her Latest Work

It was Fall 1995 when we released Fourteen Hills Volume 1.1. And one of the poets featured in our inaugaural issue was Gillian Conoley, the current poet in residence at Sonoma State University. This week, she's reading all over the Bay Area to promote her seventh book of poetry, The Plot Genie.




The title for The Plot Genie comes from a plot-generating device invented in the 1930s by former silent screenwriter, Wycliffe A. Hill. The plot genie was a cardboard spinning wheel with the numbers one through 180 printed on its rim, and an accompanying list to tell you what character trait or plot twist each number corresponded to. Conoley’s book is written from the perspective of film characters, some familiar (Frankenstein makes an appearance) and some invented, who are waiting to have their personalities and futures dialed up for them. As the narrative progresses, the plot genie itself becomes a character in the narrative, a force that rules the other characters, and is yet, itself a tool of chance and thus not fully culpable for its actions. For more information on The Plot Genie, visit the Omnidawn Press website.

This November, Bay Area residents have four opportunities to hear Conoley read her work:

Date: 11/06/09
Time: Doors open at 7pm; Reading is at 7:30pm
Location: Studio One Art Gallery, 365 45th St., Oakland, CA
Event & Participants: Studio One Reading Series featuring Gillian Conoley & Shannan Tharpe with music by Utrillo Kushner.
Find more event details here.

Date: 11/10/09
Time: 7pm
Location: Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Road, Berkeley
Event & Participants: Onmidawn Book Party featuring Gillian Conoley, Bin Ramke, Donald Revell, Michelle Taransky, & Richard Greenfield
Find more event details here.

Date: 11/13/09
Time:  7pm
Location:  Koret Auditorium of the deYoung Museum of Fine Art, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
Event & Participants: The deYoung Poetry Series featuring Gillian Conoley & Rae Armantrout
Find more event details here.

Date: 11/14/09
Time:  7pm
Location: Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Boulevard, Corte Madera
Event & Participants: Celebration of W.W. Norton Anthology, American Hybrid
featuring Gillian Conoley, Paul Hoover, Stephen Ratcliffe, Martha Ronk, & Carol Snow
Find more event details here.

And don't forget you can always order back issues direct from us for only $5.00. Download the form here and request Volume 1.1.

-Keely, Fourteen Hills Staff

Shadows, Ghosts, and Throats, Oh My!

Celebrating Halloween with a spooky poem from our archives!

Here in the Bay Area the days are getting shorter, the air is crisper, and zombies are running wild in San Francisco. In celebration of Halloween, we at Fourteen Hills want to highlight a poem from our archives that embodies this seasonal, spooky mood. Few poems make our hair stand on end as much as Andrea Baker's "The Last Hour of Throats," originally published in Fourteen Hills Issue 13.1:





THE LAST HOUR OF THROATS


The town that cast the largest shadow

lived in its own dark grace


and elegance there concealed
the great who gathered about the war


though the rivers outside were blank and weary

and the storm doubled as regret


and everywhere the dead were in need
of boxing
even if

they were still alive


----------------------------------------------

Whether Baker is describing a post-war ghost town or questioning what keeps us alive, her poem has a chilling effect. What elegance is there in reliving a complex past? Baker challenges readers to reevaluate who is alive and who is dead, and asks us to examine our own doubts and regrets. Or maybe—maybe these throats are a throwback to something macabre yet kitschy: vampires. Think about it: who else pays such close attention to the last hour of throats?

Baker's poems have been published all over since appearing in Fourteen Hills. You can see her work in Fence, Drunken Boat, Volt, The Denver Quarterly, and many other places. She was awarded the Poetry Society of America's Chapbook Award in 2004 for her first book, Gilda. Slope Books published her first full-length collection, Like Wind Loves a Window, in 2005. She is also a poetry editor of 3rd Bed Magazine.

If this hasn't quenched your thirst for Halloween poetry, let us know. What's your favorite ghost story? How would you describe a ghost town? And if you were a vampire, would you be watching for the last hour of throats?

Happy Haunting.

-Julia, Fourteen Hills Staff

Fourteen Hills: What's in a name?

While the seven hills of early Rome figure prominently in Roman mythology and politics, the city of San Francisco seems to encourage visitors and residents to argue over how many hills fill our small city. There’s certainly a lot more than seven, and many more than fourteen.

The usually reliable Wikipedia lists forty-four hills in SF, from the lowest (Rincon Hill at 100 ft.) to the highest (Mount Davidson at 925 ft.). For pictures and a map to forty-three of those hills, visit MisterSF.

But the most complete and accurate list we’ve found identifies SEVENTY-FOUR HILLS in San Francisco and its surrounding areas (Goat Hill on Yerba Buena Island makes the list). Check it out at the SF Gazetteer.

All of this comes down to: Why is the SFSU review called Fourteen Hills? Which hills does it reference? Send in your ideas, and stay tuned for the rest of our investigation.

-Leanne M.
Fourteen Hills staff

Terese Svoboda, contributor in upcoming Fourteen Hills 16.1, has a book out in December

Fourteen Hills contributor Terese Svoboda never stops working. In an interview she admitted that writing was an addictive habit, something she did every day. Daily writing is a ritual many established authors claim is absolutely necessary but difficult to adhere to, as writing is often associated with existential anguish. Svoboda, who must revel in this anguish, has the hard-earned reputation of being prolific without the usual assembly line connotation. She has a multiple books slated for 2009, 2010, and 2011.

Although she is best-known for her poetry and nonfiction, she has written over one hundred short stories and is working on her sixth novel. The New Yorker, TLS (Times Literary Supplement) and Poetry have recently featured Svoboda’s poetry, and her short stories are forthcoming in One Story, Fairytale Review, Wigleaf, Sleepingfish and Freight Stories. The Movie Business, a short story by Terese Svoboda, will be featured in Fourteen Hills, Issue 16.1.

Squeezed in between the releases of All Aberration (The Contemporary Poetry Series, Sept. 1 2009), and her fifth novel, Pirate Talk or Mermalade (Dzanc Press, 2010), is the paperback release of Trailer Girl and Other Stories (December, 2009).

Trailer Girl is a collection of seventeen short stories, many of which feature nameless women who deal with life in the shadows. Her characters manipulate their own stories within Svoboda’s framework, a playground she sets up for them to tear down. Her stories are vividly imagined and often deemed “inaccessible” because they do not adhere to a familiar logic. She is known for her feverish prose and inimitable style, not for her user-friendliness. In an interview with Ms. Svoboda by David F. Hoenigman, he asks: 

      “What is the most misunderstood aspect of your work?”

      “The words.” 

The hardcover edition of Trailer Girl was released by Counterpoint (February 2001), and the paperback will be released in December of this year.

Some selections from reviews: 

“Her poetic language is spare, disjointed, confusing, brilliant, and piercing, but her angst-filled tales are neither pleasant nor pretty. Hers is a dark world of vagrancy, abuse, drug addiction, and alcoholism, containing a litany of life's losers and wounded.”
- Library Journal

“Svoboda, sounding here like a cross between William S. Burroughs and Dorothy Allison, has been lauded in edgier venues like Spin and the Village Voice. While this may not be a mainstream hit, she could find an audience of more adventurous readers.”
–Publishers Weekly


“The kind of satisfaction that one gets from [Svoboda’s] stories is quick and blinding, governed more by instinct than reason.”

—Francie Lin, San Francisco Chronicle


You'll be able to read Svoboda's story, The Movie Business, when issue 16.1 of Fourteen Hills is released on December 16. Save the date for the release party at the San Francisco Motorcycle Club. See you there!


-Amy Glasenapp, Fourteen Hills Fiction Editor

Fourteen Hills Lit Crawl Wrap-up

It was great to see so many new faces at the Fourteen Hills reading at the City Arts Gallery during Saturday’s LitCrawl. We love introducing new people to our magazine. We also love being paired with great magazines like Eleven Eleven.

Contributors Jenny Pritchett, D.W. Lichtenberg, and Jill Tidman rocked the mike to great applause. A few times the content veered into slightly racy territory (Jenny, we have you to thank for that), and one of our young audience members had to be escorted outside to protect her innocence. Contributing to the delinquency of minors, that’s Fourteen Hills in a nutshell. (Just kidding!)

"I'm certainly biased, but the Lit Crawl is the most fun part of Litquake,” Jenny said afterwards. “For one evening out of every year, the Mission [District of San Francisco] comes alive with fans of literature! How strange! How wonderful! Artsy types throng alleys, cafes, galleries, and bars to hear their versions of rock stars read –gasp -- poems and stories. It's a beautiful thing, and I'm honored and pleased to have been involved.” Check out Jenny's reading on Dublit.com: Jenny Pritchett reads at Lit Crawl 2009



D.W. showed off his frenetic reading style at the mike, and we asked him about his unique style. “I can use my nervous energy on stage to my benefit,” he said. “I don't rehearse. My writing aims for purity of voice, and so does my performance. Realness is the most important thing in my work. When people think I'm being brutally honest, the vulnerability of the work can hit a lot harder.” Click to listen on Dublit.com: D.W. Lichtenberg reads at Lit Crawl 2009

Jill Tidman finished the reading off with a story that's set in a bar just a few blocks from the gallery. Her publication in Fourteen Hills 15.2 was her first. "To be given a tremendous stage like Litcrawl is quite an opportunity. It's a brilliant way to bring people together through poems and stories, which have a way connecting us as physical and emotional beings—and these days it can be easy to forget that's what we are." Listen to Jill Tidman's reading on Dublit.com

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and become our fan on Facebook. That way you’ll be one of the first to know about upcoming readings and events.

See you at the next event, which will be the release of The Ancient Book of Hip by D.W. Lichtenberg on November 18, 2009 at the Space Gallery.


- Leanne M.
Fourteen Hills staff