Short Stories Guide
Overview
You can search for a short story in several ways. If you are looking for a whole book of short stories by a specific author, look under his or her name as an author search in WestCat, WMU's library catalog. Titles usually indicate if a work is a collection of stories and a Table of Contents may be available in the book's description. If not, then you would need to check the actual volume on the shelf.
Some short story writers do not publish books, however, or a specific story
you want may never have been published in a book exclusively devoted to stories by that author. If you are looking for specific stories published separately
either in anthologies or in periodicals, you will need to consult the following sources that index stories.
Selected titles below do not have the text of full stories, but will provide
criticism, e.g., the MLA International Bibliography.
There are also bibliographies of and indexes to short stories arranged by country
as in the subject heading: Short Stories, American--Bibliographies. Titles of
anthologies would then need to be checked against WestCat. If not in Waldo, then
the book could be ordered by interlibrary loan.
On occasion, you also find the full text of stories through a search of Google or other public search engine.
Indexes
Short Story Index Provides index entries for almost 250,000 short stories published from the 1830s to date. Selected full text is available from 1994-date. Once you've found a book containing your short story, go to the Libraries' catalog, to see if we own that book. Also available in Central Reference (1953-2008) Z 5917 .S5 .C62 (Ref)
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Chicorel Index to Short Stories Z 5917 .S5 C47x (Ref)
Overlaps somewhat with the Short Story Index, but indexes some stories not covered there. This source only indexes collections of stories in books, not stories published in periodicals. You will need to use WestCat, the Libraries' catalog, to see if we own the book(s) cited.
LitFinder Contains over 125,000 full text poems, and a few short stories, essays, and plays. Biographies of the authors are included and over 800,000 more poems are cited.
Literature Online (LION) A full-text database of more than 350,000 works of English and American poetry, drama and prose, literary criticism from over 200 literature journals and various reference resources. Includes biographies, bibliographies, and links to Web sites. This database has a personal folder option where you can save articles. This database also has a citation export feature into Refworks, and Endnotes. This subscription is limited to four simultaneous users. Please logout when finished. Critical analysis of short stories, searchable by author and title, can be found in this excellent index. The text of short stories is also available in some instances.
Black Short Fiction Includes more than 6,400 stories and folktales by African, African American, and Caribbean authors. (When complete the collection will contain approximately 8000 works.) Most of the stories are in English, but some in French, Portuguese, and Gullah language are also included. Search by keyword, title, author, language and date.
Readers' Guide Abstracts Indexes and abstracts a core list of approximately 300 popular magazines. Includes current events; book reviews; and music, dance, theatre, and motion picture reviews. Coverage from 1983 to the present, abstracts from 1984. Updated monthly.
Print: AI 3 .R48 (Ref) (1904-1998) You can search by the descriptor Short Stories as well as by author, title, and keyword.
Readers' Guide Retrospective Indexes the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States from 1890 to 1982. Some of these periodicals published short stories and book reviews.
Print: AI 3 .R48 (Ref.) 1904-98
This subscription is limited to one simultaneous user. Please logout when finished. In the online source, a drop down menu under the search term boxes will permit selection of Story only plus the advanced search boxes will allow you to search by title, author, and keyword.
Literary Criticism
MLA International Bibliography (Modern Language Association) Indexes periodicals and series, monographs, book collections, dissertation abstracts, Festschriften (books written to honor a particular scholar), and other sources. Areas covered include modern languages and literature, folklore, linguistics, literary themes, genres, and related topics across national literatures and other classified boundaries. Covers from 1963 to the present. Updated 9 times per year. Has citation tools for Refworks, Endotes and Procite. It also has a personal folder option to save articles and citations.
Z 7006 .M64 (Ref. Index Shelves) (1921-present) This resource does NOT include the full text of short stories, but does include literary criticism relating to the authors, specific titles, and key topics of the stories.
Short Fiction Criticism Z 5917 .S5 T5 (Ref)
The subtitle explains this single volume: a checklist [bibliography] of interpretation since 1925 of stories and novelettes (American, British, Continental) 1800-1958.
Twentieth Century Short Story Explication Z 5917 .S5 W33 (Ref)
Selectively indexes interpretations of the best-known short stories. Use WestCat, the Libraries' catalog, to see if we own the print books and journals indexed here. Use Journal Finder to check for full text online articles explicating a short story.
Ask A Librarian
Laurel A. Grotzinger
laurel.grotzinger@wmich.edu
269-387-5418
Last updated: January 2009