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Abstract
The introduction, Handbook for Administrators, is a critical study of the underpinningsof The School and Other Fictions. It examines the projects point of fixity, the school, through the lenses of urban modernity and narrative theory, and discusses its relevance as both a generative icon and an organizational strategy for the collection as a whole. Scaffolded by literary influences, theoretical claims, and personal anecdote, the essay explores the form of the short story as one that is in flux, and that aptly mirrors the flux of postmodernity.The School and Other Fictions is a collection within a collection: a cycle of inter-relatedflash fictions (The School) embedded between short stories (Other Fictions), which echo each other in voice and image. The entire work employs a first-person narrator who navigates the school and the various landscapes of the Other Fictions, striving to make meaning out of instruction and instruction out of despair. All of these stories in some way grapple with the anxiety and exuberance of belonging: in the classroom, in relationships, and lastly, on the page.