Saladin Ahmed drops by the open thread with a question:
Since so many smart critics frequent here, I’d like to pitch a question to y’all: I’ve been teaching undergraduate creative writing for years (am an English MA/ poetry MFA) but this semester for the first time I’m teaching a course focused on writing fantasy fiction. As part of this I’ll be having the students read extensively, in several subgenres of fantasy. I’m looking to fill some holes in the syllabus, esp. at the 1K-3K length. So, if you were teaching a course intended to model fantasy writing for undergrads, and you could assign ANY flash or short-short fantasy stories, classic or contemporary, what would you choose? Bonus points for pieces available online…
So: any suggestions?
vector-bsfa.com 
Oh, I can’t resist such a request! Not all of these fit the length requirement, but they’re all online…
“The Golden Age of Fire Escapes” by John Aegard
“The Zombies” by Donald Barthelme
“The Boy Who Was Born Wrapped in Barbed Wire” by Christopher Barzak
“My Shadow” by Kate Bernheimer
“The Brief History of the Dead” by Kevin Brockmeier
“The Secret Identity” by Richard Butner
“The New Mother” by Lucy Clifford
“The Desires of Houses” by Haddayr Copley-Woods
“A Keeper” by Alan DeNiro
“Erasing Amyloo” by Russell Edson
“Above It All” by Carol Emshwiller
“The Way He Does It” by Jeff Ford
“Loot” by Nadine Gordimer
“Hold Tight” by Gavin Grant
“The Rapid Advance of Sorrow” by Theodora Goss
“A Country Doctor” by Franz Kafka
“Blue Ink” by Yoon Ha Lee
“Some Zombie Contingency Plans” by Kelly Link
“Eight-Legged Story” by Maureen McHugh
“The Palm Tree Bandit” by Nnedi Okorafor
“A Hard Truth About Waste Management” by Sumanth Prabhaker
“The Girl Who Ate Butterflies” by M. Rickert
“Detours on the Way to Nothing” by Rachel Swirsky
“A Buyer’s Guide to Maps of Antarctica” by Catherynne Valente
“Secret Life” by Jeff VanderMeer
“A Haunted House” by Virginia Woolf
Well, that’s more than I intended, but I kept telling myself, “Just one more…”
Some of my favorite podcastle flash pieces:
“Believe” by Katherine Sparrow
“The Voices of Snakes” by Karina Sumner-Smith
“The Desires of Houses” by Haddayr Copley-Woods
Thanks, folks!