Treehouse

Hi everybody!!

We’re very excited to announce that beginning August 16, 2014, we will only be accepting submissions via Submittable.  (Don’t worry: it’s still free to submit!)

As of today, July 24, 2014, we ask that you please hold off on sending us submissions until that time.  This gives us adequate time to seamlessly make the switch without the risk of new incoming submissions getting lost in the fray.  If you have recently sent a submission via e-mail, please know it is still being reviewed and will not be neglected as a result of the submission manager change.

We hope moving to Submittable will make it easier for you to submit your pieces to us for review.  We also intend for the switch to help cut down on the delay in response time.

The link to our Submittable site is already on our submissions page, but again, you will not be able to submit until August 16, 2014.  Submissions sent to the e-mail address previously listed on our submissions page after this date will not receive consideration.

All of the same guidelines for submitting creative material remain the same.  The only change is where you’ll send it.

Please note: Submissions for the currently active Brief Encounter prompt are not affected by this change.  You may continue to send Brief Encounter submissions for review to treehouse[dot]editors[at]gmail[dot]com. 

Treehouse contributor Sarah Kay has completed a new book of poetry, No Matter the Wreckage. You can get it directly from Write Bloody Publishing, or you can find it on Amazon.com. If you loved her poem Yolk in our seventh issue, you’ll be happy to see it in her new collection alongside many other phenomenal poems.

Congratulations, Sarah!

Description from Amazon:

No Matter the Wreckage

“ Following the success of her breakout poem, “B”, Sarah Kay, in collaboration with illustrator Sophia Janowitz, releases her debut collection of poetry featuring work from the first decade of her career. No Matter the Wreckage presents readers with new and beloved poetry that showcases Kay’s talent for celebrating family, love, travel, and unlikely romance between inanimate objects (“The Toothbrush to the Bicycle Tire”). Both fresh and wise, Kay’s poetry allows readers to join her on the journey of discovering herself and the world around her. It is an honest and powerful collection.

from John Oliver Hodges, author of How We Solved the Problem:

1. At the Decamp Bus Line window in the Port Authority, I leaned over to order my tickets. I said, “Tree ticketa Montclair Date Uniberdity pleeea,” into the circular vent in the glass, and the homeless-looking dude standing nearby said, for the second time, “Excuse me sir, can I have a dollar?” As the lady printed my tickets I looked at him and said, “No,” and he said, “Your life is gonna be fucked up!” I said, “Too late,” and he laughed.
2. I was walking down the sidewalk in Greenpoint with my usual chocolate doughnut, what I buy daily from Peter Pan Polish Bakery. Often as I walk along eating my doughnut, I will hold it out to somebody, and say, “Would you like a bite?” Once, I said it to a Korean girl, but I asked her in perfectly pronounced Korean. She laughed.
3. Another time as I walked along eating my doughnut, I was really getting into the doughnut, slobbering on it real good, and this guy wearing a uniform like what phone technicians wear, saw me eating my doughnut. As the gap between us closed, I held my slobbery doughnut his way. Didn’t he want a bite? He stopped in his tracks. I kept walking. “You trying to be funny?” he called after me. I was turned his way, crumbs falling from my lips. I said, “No, it’s real good,” as if the offer was still open should he change his mind. Now he walked after me so I just walked faster backwards and then, as it turned out, I had to turn forward and run a little bit to get away from him.
4. There was this homeless guy in the Port Authority who kept making loud fart sounds with his mouth, and each time he made the loud fart sound he jerked his pelvis forward as if he’d just let go a humdinger, and he would turn his head back like What’s going on here?and then fart with his mouth again and repeat the scenario. I liked it so much that I, too, do it on occasion.
5. I don’t know why, but for some reason when I’m walking around in New York City, I love to say, “Maaaaan, dey got some creeezy people in heah!” I say it all the time out on the sidewalks, and especially I say it when I’m hanging out underground waiting for the E train, or the G train, or the 7 train. I say it loud enough for the people around me to hear, but nobody ever says anything back. Perhaps the voice doesn’t match the awesome image I cut from the day, or maybe my words are garbled. Either way, the other night inside the Port Authority, at about 11pm, I was headed down to catch the E and this longheaded guy was on the tiles with his back against the wall, his skinny legs poking out across the floor. I said my thing as I passed him, out of habit more than anything else, and he said, bobbing his long head up and down, “Yeeah, and you about the craziest motherfuckah in heah!”

♦

We hope you enjoy yourself this week with friends, family, and—most importantly—good things to read.

• 12 Interesting Literary Facts for Christmas – a snail after Scrooge’s own heart
• Great Literary Christmas Tales that Aren’t “A Christmas Carol” – in case you’re sick of Scrooge
• Top 10 Books About the Winter Solstice – “…a day that has been filled with magic since ancient times.” Sounds way more interesting than whatever you were doing on Saturday.
• A light-hearted literary 12 days of Christmas – “If Almighty God had approved of books He would not have created worms to destroy them.” O RLY?
• In ancient tradition, Iranians celebrate winter solstice – Poetry definitely needs to be a part of everyone’s celebrations.