The Twenty-First Century Fantastic class concluded Friday, and I’m going to miss them. Smart, engaged, if a bit frostbitten in the chilly classroom.  Everyone brought hoodies, myself included.  I’ve worked in walk-ins that were warmer.  They never bored me, and I hope they can say the same of me. Their favorite of the four story collections we read was Jeffrey Ford’s The Empire of Ice Cream, not just one of my favorite short story collections, but one of my favorite books of all time.  They liked all the films, Children of Men especially, but Another Earth made a strong showing.  Thank you, guys, you were wonderful.

I begin an eight-week fiction workshop Tuesday, and I’m looking forward to it.  I’ll be suggesting stories available online for them to read along the way.  In honor of Jeff’s popularity in the last class, and because it’s so damn fine, the first story I’ll suggest is “Creation,” which first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and is collected in his wonderful collection, The Fantasy Writer’s Assistant.  If you don’t know his work, “Creation,” isn’t a bad place to start—and just in time for Father’s Day.