Three of Fourteen Hills’ favorite writers will be sharing their work: Junse Kim (Issue 18.1), Kristi Moos (18.2) and Stoyan Vassilev (2012 Michael Rubin Book Award winner). Here’s a bit more about our readers, including their answers to a few of our questions.

 

Stoyan Vassilev won the 2012Michael Rubin Award for Hope Seven, his chapbook about the realities of living in post-communist Bulgaria and the dreams of immigrating to America. He lives in the Santa Cruz Mountains with his wife and baby, works as a software engineer in Silicon Valley by day, and finds time to attend San Francisco State University’s MFA program at night. To learn more about Stoyan, his forthcoming book and his writing process, take a look at our recent interview. He also found the time to answer a couple of our questions about the upcoming reading.  

Fourteen Hills: What do you plan on reading for the event, and is there any particular reason why you chose this piece? (Or are you waiting until the last minute to decide?)

Stoyan Vassilev: I will probably read the beginning of my short story, “The Last Saturday in the Life of Mr. Nedev.” I thought of reading some of my newer stuff, but for an event like this I would rather read something safe.

FH: What do you think of LitCrawl? Have you gone before or to any of the other LitQuake events around the city?

SV: I was not able to go to LitCrawl--or any of the LitQuake events--last year, and I didn't know that it existed before that. So this will be my first time at LitCrawl both as a listener and as a reader.

Vassilev will also be celebrating the launch of Hope Seven by reading selections from his newly published stories on November 28, 7pm, at The Booksmith in the Haight-Ashbury district.

 

Junse Kim, instructor at San Francisco State University, is no stranger to the short story. He was the winner of a Pushcart Prize and a Faulkner Short Story Award. When it comes to his writing, Kim seamlessly allows us to resonate with his well-developed, endearing characters in as short of a span as three pages. His story, “My Brother’s To Tell,” was published in Fourteen Hills Issue 18.1.

Fourteen Hills: Can you tell us a little more about your writing process, whether it is consistent, more unpredictable, or somewhere in between?

Junse Kim: I’m definitely more of a structured writer. In a first draft I start with a thorough concept of the main character(s), and a list of scenes and pieces of info I want to include to move the plot forward and develop the drama. Then it’s a matter of developing the main character with specific details (which often allows the character to organically evolve out of my original concept and into a real person who I fully understand) and intuitively ordering the scenes in ways that serve the plot and drama. In the revision process I’m still very structured in figuring out how to fulfill the narrative’s intent with craft, but I also become a bit more like a free-writer, allowing myself to be open to the discovery process of who the character is and how/why the events in the narrative are meaningful to her/him.

Fourteen Hills: Which story have you chosen from your repertoire for the upcoming reading at LitCrawl?

JK: Possibly the story that got published in 14 Hills, “My Brother’s To Tell,” since it’s short enough to read in the given time. It might be another short piece with the same narrator, since it has a fruit pie scene in it, which would fit the LitCrawl venue of Mission Pie.

Of his work, Kim adds, “It took me weeks working on the last paragraph, just looking at the blank space where it should be, before I understood how the first part of the story affected the narrator at the end.”

 

Kristi Moos is a writer, editor, and the founder and editor-in-chief of Poecology. She is the author of Oakland Poems (Deep Oakland Editions 2010), which won the Harold Taylor Prize from the Academy of American Poets. Her poem, “The Place that Waits for You,” is featured in Fourteen Hills Issue 18.2, and many of her other poems can be found in numerous other journals, reviews and anthologies.

FH: Can you tell us more about your experiences being the founder of Poecology, the obstacles you had to face in launching, and what drove you to start a journal focusing on the fusion between writing and human connections to a physical place?

Kristi Moos: Poecology was sparked by my two greatest loves – ecology and place writing. More than that, I really wanted to get connected with other writers; to read and publish the great place writing I was hearing at local readings and that I knew was out there in the world. At the time I launched Poecology, I was working in publishing full-time. I knew some tricks of the trade going in. But I had to teach myself web design. I had to publicize submissions. I had to find cover art. I had to edit the first issue. Now, I have plans to expand Poecology into a multimedia site with writing from all over the world pinned to an interactive map. Finding time for everything still proves to be the biggest challenge.

FH: What do you plan on reading for LitCrawl?

KM: At LitCrawl, I plan to read some work from a new poetry collection about California ecology. Who knows! Maybe I’ll even read some work that I haven’t written yet.

Come by for a slice of pie, a cup of coffee, and a great reading at Mission Pie on Saturday, October 13. We very much look forward to seeing you there!