Masthead
2026-2027
Michael David Lukas, Faculty Advisor
Michael David Lukas has been a Fulbright Scholar in Turkey, a night-shift proofreader in Tel Aviv, a student at the American University of Cairo, and a waiter at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference in Vermont. Translated into more than a dozen languages, his first novel The Oracle of Stamboul was a finalist for the California Book Award, the NCIBA Book of the Year Award, and the Harold U. Ribalow Prize. His second novel, The Last Watchman of Old Cairo, won the Sami Rohr Prize, the National Jewish Book Award, the Prix Interallié for Foreign Fiction, and the ALA’s Sophie Brody Medal. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Slate, National Geographic Traveler, and Georgia Review.
Jade Zora Dean (She/ They), Co-Editor-in-Chief
Jade Zora Dean (she/they) is a queer, transfem writer and poet pursuing her M.F.A. at S.F.S.U. Her poetry has appeared in The Ana and The University of Colorado Boulder Honor’s Journal and is upcoming in Hood of Bone Review and New Words Press. Her poem “Not Hiding, Unseen” was nominated for the 2024 pushcart prize. She loves to use art to hack the consciousness and tap into the empathy of those who submit to aesthetic experience- occasionally capturing snapshots of the sublime like bugs in a jar.
Jaine (she/they), Co-Editor-in-Chief
Jaine is a Black femme writer, Creative Writing MFA candidate, and 14 Hills Co-Editor in Chief who seeks to preserve her memory and identity through fiction, poetry, and essays.
When not working on her current Afro-futurist project, she can be found spending time with her beloved cat or exploring a new hairstyle. She is a recipient of the Joe Brainard Scholarship, the Elizabeth June Madden-Zibman Creative Writing Endowed Scholarship, and is an awarded Outstanding Graduated Senior from CSU Northridge, where she holds a BA in Creative Writing & Africana Studies.
Jaine believes in celebrating culture, love for women & children, the arts, education, and liberation for all oppressed nations.
Gwendolyn Hicks (she/her), Fiction Editor
Gwendolyn Hicks writes emails, mostly, but also fiction about relationships. An alum of the Clarion Workshop and the Lambda Literary Retreat, they grew up in Petaluma and are currently an MFA candidate at San Francisco State University. Their work has appeared in venues including Uncanny, Kaleidotrope, Small Wonders, and Heartlines Spec, and has been nominated for the Rhysling Award. They like leaving apple cores on tables and swimming in the Eel River.
Georgina DeMasías (she/her), Assistant Fiction Editor
Georgina DeMasías writes horror, mystery, magical realism, and experimental fiction. Based in the East Bay, she's a former medical doctor now fully dedicated to teaching and writing. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State, where she's also pursuing an MFA. Her favorite thing to read, talk about, and visit are haunted houses.
Jie Liu, Assistant Fiction Editor
Jie Liu comes from Hangzhou, China. Before enrolling in graduate school, she had never visited an English-speaking country. Still, she has developed a deep and abiding fondness for English even though it is her second language. Currently she's pursuing an MFA degree in Creative Writing at San Francisco State University. She writes across genres, but her primary passion is poetry and fiction. Her work has appeared in literary journals such as Mistaken House, Sky Island Journal, Dream Noir, Risa Press, Bright Flash Literary Review, and others. She's honored to have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.
Madison Vansco (she/her), Assistant Fiction Editor
Madison Vansco is a writer and educator from Houston. She moved to the Bay Area after receiving her Bachelor's degree in English from Texas State University. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing at San Francisco State University and teaches creative writing to elementary students. She was shortlisted for the World History Encyclopedia Ink of Ages Short Fiction Prize.
Maxwell Dionisio (he/him), Assistant Fiction Editor
Maxwell Dionisio (he/him) is a dangerous bisexual, a qt writer of color, and a public servant. He is pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at San Francisco State University, and lives with his partner(s) and two feline daughters on Ohlone land in California.
Oliver Dimitri Krishnan (he/him), Assistant Fiction Editor
Serial reader, a walking Marvel encyclopaedia, Proud Malaysian
Shaquan Womack (he/him), Assistant Fiction Editor
Shaquan is an Oakland-based multi-genre writer from the Bronx, NY. He is currently an MFA student in Creative Writing at San Francisco State University. His work focuses on American realism, social commentary, and the preservation of Black culture and tradition. He uses satire and absurdity to hold the mirror up to our absurd world.
Sierra Warrick (she/her), Assistant Fiction Editor
Sierra Warrick was born and raised in Oakland, California, on the unceded and ancestral Chochenyo Ohlone land of Huchiun. A BFA graduate of the University of British Columbia and current MFA student at San Francisco State University, she received the 2025 Clark-Gross Award in the Novel and has published stories and poems in The Collidescope, The Closed Eye Open, and Meridian, where she was a finalist for the 2019 Editor's Prize. She is a fiction editor of Fourteen Hills literary magazine, cofounder of the Midnight Hour Collective, a teacher and mentor with the nonprofits Aim High, Chapter 510, and the Bay Area Book Festival, and spends the rest of her time working at the Oakland Public Library.
Beck Friedman (they/them), Co-Poetry Editor
Beck Friedman (they/them) is a queer, trans Bay Area native. They are a fiction writer, poetry reader, and linguist pursuing an MFA from SFSU. They are a lover of long sentences, unusual imagery, fiction that feels like poetry, and poetry that feels like fiction.
Cody Putz (they/them), Co-Poetry Editor
Cody Putz is a writer and performer in their fifth semester of their Creative Writing Masters at San Francisco State University. They are an avid lover of speculative fiction and poetry, and they can be found haunting beaches in their spare time.
Abrahim “Bimo” El Gamal (he/him), Assistant Fiction & Creative Non-Fiction Editor
Abrahim hails from the San Francisco Bay Area. He has written poetry for as long as he can remember. His first poem to be published appears in the spring 2025 issue of Transfer Magazine. He is an MFA candidate in Creative Writing at San Francisco State University.
Angeles Alva Villatoro (she/her), Assistant Poetry Editor
Angeles's Bio
Cate Macrum (she/they), Assistant Poetry Editor
Cate Macrum is a writer of magical realism and prose poetry. Having received a BA in Literature from UC Santa Cruz, she is pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at San Francisco State University. Her work has appeared in Chinquapin Literary Magazine. She splits her time between San Francisco and Los Angeles, junk journaling and knitting.
Raia Small (she/her), Assistant Poetry Editor
Raia Small is a writer who was born and raised in San Francisco by a painter from Delhi and a cab driver from Burlingame. Her writing has been published in Zyzzyva, Midnight Sun, Kaleidoscoped, and Make/shift. She was a finalist for the 2025 Tom Howard/ John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest and the 2026 Steinbeck Fellowship, and has received fellowships from Periplus and the Kearny Street Writers’ Workshop. She is currently a Bernice Ruben Arnold Fellow in creative nonfiction at San Francisco State University.
Zithlaly Betancourt (they/she), Assistant Poetry Editor & Art Editor
Zithlaly Betancourt is a queer Latine—Arab writer living in Oakland, CA. Their work interrogates the fragmented space between diaspora and disownment. Zithlaly is currently pursuing their MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University.
René Zadoorian (he/him), Creative Non-fiction Editor
René is an Armenian writer and bookseller originally from Tehran. He earned his BA in Creative Writing from California State University Northridge and is now pursuing his MFA in Fiction from San Francisco State. His work has appeared in Fruitslice, Qafiyah Review, Hyebred Magazine, Azad Archives and elsewhere.
Marina Lee, Playwriting Editor
Marina Lee is a playwright-poet pursuing their MFA in creative writing at SFSU. their work centers blood and magic and screaming and plants. they hold a BS in Cognitive & Behavioral Neuroscience and a BA in Literature/Writing from UCSD.
Benjamin Arizmendi-Calvert (they/them), Hybrid Editor & Art Assistant Editor
Ben is a writer and educator living in the San Francisco Bay Area.
James Giffin (he/him), Design Editor
James Giffin (he/him) is a document design specialist and content workflow editor, as well as a writer of memoir, experimental autofiction, and nearly two essays with identifiable thesis statements. He has been the design editor of Fourteen Hills since 2021 and his creative nonfiction is featured in Gold Man Review and Heartwood Literary Magazine.
Jack Darrow (I & I), Managing Editor
Jack lives on the north slope of Mt. Tamalpais, waiting for rain.
Judas Ātman Wiley (they/he), Assistant Managing Editor
Judas Ātman tells trans stories for trans people. Their artistic work is multi-genre and multidisciplinary, including creative writing and theatre. He has served as Co-Editor in Chief of Fourteen Hills and is currently the Assistant Managing Editor. They also are a Directing Fellow at Oakland Theatre Project, where they served as an Assistant Director on Taylor Mac's The Fre. You can find their work forthcoming in Foglifter and F(r)iction.
Owen Karlsen (he/him), Social Media Editor
Owen Karlsen is a fiction writer living in San Francisco. His work has been published in Transfer Magazine and read at Happy Endings Reading Series. He graduated with a BA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University in May 2026. Owen carries rocks in his pockets that he found on the ground and hopes in his next life he’ll be a house cat.
Alfredo Arzola-Ibarra (he/they), Web Editor
Alfredo Arzola-Ibarra (he/they) is most himself when he is creating. He is a dreamer at heart and reaches to tell the truth through his creative endeavors. From poetry to cooking to singing to designing to writing, Arzola-Ibarra uses what inspires him to outspire. He is currently pursuing an M.A. in Creative Writing at San Francisco State University while a graphic designer for the university’s Strategic Marketing & Communications department. Arzola-Ibarra continues to reach toward the sky dreaming of all the songs that got him here.