Chad Koch: Co- Editor-in-Chief. I work closely with Sommer, our managing editor, on our web/blog presence, Jason, our community development manager, on setting-up readings/venues, and, John, our technical editor, on updating our website (hopefully sometime in spring 2013) and launching a digital edition of the magazine (hopefully this upcoming issue). I also read the work that comes in and talk with our other editors.

 

Miah Jeffra: Co-Editor-in-Chief, along with the indomitable Chad Koch. My specific role as Co-EIC is to run Fourteen Hills meetings and manage the staff and staff assignments.  I also assist all the editors with artistic choices to enable a comprehensive aesthetic for the magazine.

 

 Sommer Schafer: Managing Editor. I handle subscriptions, deal with the money, make sure the office isn’t falling into chaos.

 

 Ari Moskowitz: Fiction Editor. I spend my time reading hundreds of stories looking for gems, discussing the gems with the fiction staff for possible publication, and soliciting writing from established authors.

 

 Diana Rosinus: Poetry Editor. I sift through hundreds of poems and lead discussions to help shape the journal's content. It's about upholding a collective vision while remaining open to inspiration from unexpected places.

 

 Gaia Veenis: Assistant Fiction Editor. Together with Ari, I help facilitate discussions with the staff about which of our selections is going to be included in the next issue.

 

 Caren Corley: Assistant Poetry Editor. I help Diana read through hundreds of poems to find the next edition of Fourteen Hills.

 

 Jason Schenheit: Community Organizer and Outreach Coordinator. Among other things, I coordinate Fourteen Hills events and work to increase our presence within the Bay Area and beyond.

 

 John Haggerty: Technical Editor. I am in charge of our computer infrastructure and online presence. We have high hopes for increasing our web profile in the coming months.

 

 Matthew Clark Davison: Faculty Advisor. I work to support the editors and staff by encouraging activities and conversations aimed at making every minute of their Fourteen Hills experience one where each student refines his or her artistic vision while engaging critical thinking. I do this while acting as the liaison between the magazine, the students who make it, the department it represents, and the college that provides funding.

 

Chad: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. Smith Blue by Camille Dungy (see Fourteen Hills 18.2).And countless short stories across various magazines and web-zines.

 

Miah: Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham; Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison; The Erasers by Alain Robbe-Grillet

                          

Sommer: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

 

Ari: The Secret History, Donna Tartt

 

Diana: My constant is The Essential Rumi.

 

Gaia: One of the books that inspired me to be a writer is The Basketball Diaries by Jim Carroll.

 

Caren: My favorite fiction is The Passion by Jeannette Winterson, but Just Kids is my absolute favorite memoir.

 

Jason: Foe by J.M. Coetzee

 

John: Moby-Dick. It is insanely good—funny and weird and profound, and the writing is unbelievable. It’s amazing that this book was written in the 1850s. It still feels revolutionary.

 

Matthew: Sula by Toni Morrison is on the (very long) list. In addition to being one of the most original characters in contemporary fiction, she reminds me not to take for granted the true gift it is to have an art form and the freedom to use it.

Chad: Due to my nerdiness as a gamer, I have been reading and researching the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

 

Miah: I am the artistic director of ShadowLab, a cooperative of artists who engage in culture jamming/creative actions for social justice. 

                          

Sommer: I’ve traveled solo through Bangladesh and Nepal.

 

Ari: I used to play poker professionally and once parlayed $10 into a $13,500 prize package to Melbourne, Australia.

 

Diana: I wrote my undergraduate thesis about the subjectivity of time perception. 

 

Gaia: Surprisingly to me even, I have completed three full marathons and seven half marathons since 2007 (26.2 miles / 13.1 miles).

 

Caren: I can juggle three things of differing weight and size.

 

Jason: I’m a United States Marine Corps Veteran, 1999-2004 

 

John: I used to be able to climb 5.13. OK, I know that means absolutely nothing to the non-climbers. How about this: I was born in a fire station.

 

Matthew: I can jump rope like a pro boxer.

 

 

 

Chad: “A poet is a penguin—his wings are to swim with.” e.e. cummings

 

Miah: "He who has imagination without learning has wings but no feet." - Old Confucian saying

                          

Sommer: “We shall not cease from exploration / And the end of all our exploring / Will be to arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time” – T. S. Eliot, from “Little Gidding”

 

Ari: A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world. -Oscar Wilde, The Critic as Artist

 

Diana: "Be humble for you are made of earth. Be noble for you are made of stars." - Serbian Proverb

 

Gaia: "The best way out is always through." - Robert Frost

 

Caren: "To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, and to contemplate the beautiful thing, that is enough for one [wo]man's life." – T.S. Eliot

 

Jason: “I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living.”  - Dr. Seuss

 

John: “I dig the cats who take chances. They play a song I’ve never heard.” - Thelonious Monk

“To be uncertain is to be uncomfortable, but to be certain is to be ridiculous.” – Socrates

 

Matthew: “She would have been a good woman [. . .] if it had been someone there to shoot her every minute of her life.” from A Good Man is Hard to Find –Flannery O’Connor