San Francisco Motorcycle Club: City Landmark (And Fun-Loving Home To Our Release Party)

This granddaddy of motorcycle clubs celebrated its centenary in 2004. As the second oldest motorcycle club in the United States, the San Francisco Motorcycle Club (SFMC) is an iconic city landmark, a symbol of free-spirited bikers crisscrossing the American landscape.

Started in 1904, it gypsied from one place to the other before finding a home on 2194 Folsom Street in the Mission. The club website proudly proclaims its philosophy: they are not fixated with a particular motorcycle brand, open to all age groups (over 18), and members must take the business and the art of motorcycling seriously. The SFMC also likes to support the city's aspiring literary masterminds, and has played host to the Fourteen Hills release party for several years running.

Is there a reason these too seemingly disconnected groups -- writers and bikers -- go so well together? Of course there is, according to SFMC member John A. Sweeney. “The writer and the motorcyclist are kindred spirits," he explains. "We search for our souls in the blank sheet of paper and the open road.”

When you step inside the club this Friday at 7 p.m. for a night of readings, prizes, and literary celebration, you'll enter a plush wood interior to see trophies and historical photographs lining the walls. Take a seat, because this gorgeous room will quickly fill up with poets, writers, artists, bike riders, and more, reciting, bantering, and dancing. Voila, the next Fourteen Hills release party is born.

- Ashutosh Bhuradia, Fourteen Hills staff

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 Will Be At San Francisco Litcrawl 2009!

On Saturday, October 17th from 6pm -9:30pm San Francisco’s 10th annual Litquake will conclude with the most anticipated literary event of the year: Litcrawl.

Fourteen Hills wouldn’t miss it and we hope you feel the same!

During Litcrawl, for three and a half hours only, San Francisco’s Mission District will be host to dozens of writers represented by almost every major literary organization in the Bay Area. The writers and audience will be stuffed into bars, galleries, restaurants, coffee shops, and bookstores; and the readings and spoken word performances will happen more or less simultaneously. To add to the joy (and general chaos), this year’s Litcrawl will also be attended by over 20 street food vendors so you can get your gastronomical stimulation at the same time as your literary stimulation.

To provide some loose structure to the melee and to keep the crowds moving, Litcrawl has been arranged into three phases:

Phase 1 is from 6:00pm – 7:00pm
Phase 2 is from 7:15pm – 8:15pm
Phase 3 is from 8:30pm -9:30pm

Fourteen Hills will be given a reading with Eleven Eleven during Phase 2 at the City Art Gallery at 828 Valencia St.

Here is some information on the three writers reading for Fourteen Hills:

Jenny Pritchett is currently teaching classes at the San Francisco Writer’s Salon. She is the former managing editor of Fourteen Hills, and has taught or lectured at SFSU, California College of the Arts, and Ex’pression College for Digital Arts. Her debut story collection, At or Near the Surface (Fourteen Hills Press), won the 2008 Michael Rubin Chapbook Award. She has published work in Southwest Review, Northwest Review, Boulevard, Salt Hill, Fiction Attic, Best of the Web 2008 and elsewhere. She has also been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

D.W. Lichtenberg is 23 years old & living in San Francisco. He is the author of The Ancient Book of Hip (Fourteen Hills Press), an exploration into the phenomenon of hip, to be released November 2009. He is a writer, a filmmaker, a caffeine addict, an obsessive cleaner.

Jill Tidman lives in San Francisco with her posse: Wil and Izy. She is Program Director at the Redford Center and a Masters candidate at Bread Loaf School of English. She is a contributor to Fourteen Hills: The SFSU Review Issue 15.2

RSVP to the event on Facebook.

We hope to see you there.

-Keely 

Fourteen Hills Staff