Treehouse

Johannes Lichtman

1. “Visiting Writers” by Ravi Mangla at Uncanny Valley: Here’s an example of how to use online platforms to enhance the experience of reading really good writing. In a series of flash fictions, Ravi Mangla introduces us to famous writers:
   Wallace Stevens came to our door selling insurance. He was young and wore a white linen suit with the dry cleaning tag still attached to the sleeve. He handed my father his business card. The day was bright and his face was flushed red from the heat. My father called him Mr. Stevens, and he stopped him. Mr. Stevens was my father’s name, he said. My father asked him what name he preferred. He loosened the knot in his tie. Mr. Stevens is fine, he said.
2. “Las Casas” by Patrick Somerville at HTMLGIANT. This excerpt from Patrick Somerville’s forthcoming novel, This Bright River, follows a hypnotic conversation about evil. Somerville’s last two books, The Cradle and The Universe in Miniature in Miniature, could hardly have been better or more different, so I’m eagerly awaiting this one. Here’s a pretty cool trailer for it.
3. “Plans” by Kiki Vera Johnson at The Fiddleback. A poem that takes the form of an existential to-do list:
   Forget feminism
   Eat a tomato
   Diagram personal wins and losses in a pie
   Stop envying law degrees
4. “Occupy Wilmington” by Peter C. Baker at n+1. In this concise essay, Baker uses an unusual occupation in North Carolina to look at the racial issue of the Occupy movement.
5. “Wild Honey” by Andrew Brininstool at PANK. Great flash fiction from one of my favorite young writers: “Where I live now the churches rival shopping malls in square-footage and parking. The pastor’s are all shellac and glean, with wives made-up as if ready for burial.”