Fourteen Hills: The SFSU Review, the national literary journal published in the Creative Writing Department, has established the Stacy Doris Memorial Poetry Award, in memory of the late faculty member, poet and translator.
The call for entries states a desire to honor a poem with a truly inventive spirit: “Doris was always creating new worlds with her unexpected poetics, following upon that spirit of creative invention and inventive creation, engaging wit and ingenious playfulness, discovery in construction and radical appropriations based on classical forms, pastiche and love.”
Stacy Doris was an associate professor of creative writing for 10 years. Her work is widely recognized. Her recent posthumous collection, Fledge: A Phenomenology of Spirit (Nightboat Books) was described as “a miracle of attentiveness” by department Chair Maxine Chernoff.
Doris’ other books include Paramour, The Cake Part, Knot, Cheerleader’s Guide to the World: Council Book, Conference, Une Année à New York avec Chester, La vie de Chester Steven Wiener ecrite par sa femme and Kildare. She was also a translator, known for her work with contemporary French poetry. She co-edited two anthologies, Twenty One New (to North America) French Writers and Violence of the White Page, with Emmanuel Hocquard.
The poetry award winner will receive $500 and publication in the spring 2014 issue of Fourteen Hills. Poems not awarded will still be considered for publication. Poet Chet Wiener, Doris’ husband, will serve as guest judge. Submissions must be received by January 1 through Fourteen Hills’ Submittable site. Poems must be no more than 10 pages. Only one poem per author may be submitted. Current SF State students are ineligible.
Staffed exclusively by Creative Writing graduate students, Fourteen Hills: The SFSU Review publishes original poetry, fiction, literary nonfiction and cross-genre work created by writers in the U.S. and abroad. It also welcomes and prints representative contributions from visual artists. Founded in 1994, Fourteen Hills contributes to a vibrant literary tradition on the West Coast centered in the Bay Area. Its commitment to presenting a diversity of experimental and progressive work by emerging and cross-genre writers, as well as by award-winning and established authors, has earned it a reputation for literary excellence. Being independent means its aesthetic is dynamic and fluid, ever changing to meet the needs of the culture and the historical moment as the staff perceive them. As an international literary magazine, Fourteen Hills has developed a reading audience that goes beyond the San Francisco Bay Area to the international community. Matthew Clark Davison is faculty adviser.