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Finding Short Fiction in Book Collections & Anthologies:

Finding a specific short story in an anthology (stories by various authors) or a collection (stories by the same author) can be difficult to do, depending on whether or not the individual stories are listed in the table of contents within the libraries' online catalog. The following are tips for finding short stories in book collections or anthologies:

• Use the UW Libraries Catalog to find a particular short story in an anthology or a collection. Using the keyword search, try the author's name and the title of the story with the AND operator:
• shirley jackson AND the lottery
• o henry AND the cop and the anthem
• If this doesn't work, you must determine in which collection or anthology a particular story appears. Use one of the indexing tools in the sections below to find the specific collection or anthology. Then, you can search for the title of the collection/anthology in the catalog:
  • The Faulkner Reader: Selections from the Works of William Faulkner

Finding Short Fiction in Periodicals:

It used to be very difficult to find a particular short story in a magazine or journal. Special indexes and bibliographies were the only means of tracking them down. Below is a list of some of those specialized tools, which are still useful today--all are located in Suzzallo Reference (1st floor) unless otherwise indicated:

• American Humanities Index (1975-). AI3 .A487.
  The American Humanities Index (AHI) is an index to literary, scholarly and creative journals published in the United States and Canada. The index covers over 700 journals published from 1975 to the present, many of which cannot be found in other reference works. Be sure to get the full citation and check the UW Libraries Catalog to see if the journal is available in the libraries' collection.
• Black Literature 1827-1940
  A project headed by Henry Louis Gates Jr. to identify fiction, poetry, book reviews and literary notices published in black periodicals between 1827-1940 and reproduce the material on microfiche. Most of the works in this set are not available through other resources. There is a guide to the microfiche set in Microforms/Newspapers (Z1229 N39 B55). The microfiche number is M2296.
• Short Story Index: an Index to 60,000 Stories in 4,320 Collections, Z5917.S5 & supplements (1953-.).
  An author, title and subject index to short stories published in anthologies and, since 1974, periodicals. Coverage emphasizes established authors.
• Short Story Index: Collections Indexed 1900-1978, PN 3373 .S565 1979.
• Standard Index of Short Stories, 1900-1914, Z 1231 .F4 H33.
  An index to short stories published in American magazines never reprinted in book form. Contains over 35,000 entries, comprising the work of more than 3,000 authors.

• Expanded Academic Index - UW restricted
  EAI covers approximately 1,500 scholarly journals and general interest magazines in all subject areas from 1980-present. Search by author or title to find a particular short story. Some full text is available.
• Research Library Complete - UW restricted
  RLC also covers general interest and scholarly periodicals from 1986 to present. It also covers major newspapers. Search by author or title to find a particular short story. Some full text is available.
• Readers' Guide Retrospective (1890 - 1982) - UW restricted
  Readers' Guide Retrospective is an index to the most popular general interest periodicals that were published in the United States from 1890-1982. Search by author or title. No full text is available, so be sure to check UW holdings to locate the magazine/journal in the libraries' collection.
• Alternative Press Index - UW restricted
  Full text database of selected newspapers, magazines, and journals of the alternative and independent press--some include selected poems & short fiction.

Finding Critical Analysis of Short Fiction:

Finding scholarly interpretations of short fiction is more straight-forward. Use the UW Libraries Catalog to look for books that provide criticism & interpretation on a particular author:

• Use the LC Subject search and look by the author's name:
  • Chopin, Kate, 1851-1904 -- Criticism and interpretation
  • Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864. Rappaccini's daughter

To locate journal articles articles on a particular short story or author, use one of the following resources:

• MLA International Bibliography - UW restricted
  MLA focuses on literature, language, linguistics, and folklore. It includes scholarly research in over 3,000 journals relevant monographs, working papers, proceedings, bibliographies, and other formats, from 1923 - present.
• Literature Online - UW restricted
  Incorporates an extensive collection of criticism and reference works, including full-text literary journals and resources for over 14,000 authors.
• Literature Resource Center - UW restricted
  LRC covers more than 120,000 novelists, poets, essayists, journalists, playwrights, and other writers, with in-depth coverage of 2,500 of the most-studied authors. Includes full-text articles from literary journals, critical essays, plot summaries, author portraits and an encyclopedia of literary terms.
• Expanded Academic Index - UW restricted
  EAI covers approximately 1,500 scholarly and general interest periodicals in all subject areas--humanities, social sciences, and science and technology, 1980-present. You can find both critical essays on poets/poetry, as well as reviews of poetry book collections in EAI.
• Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective (1907 - 1984) - UW restricted
  Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective provides citations to articles from English-language periodicals. Periodical coverage includes some of the best-known scholarly journals and numerous lesser-known but important specialized magazines from 1907-1984..
• Readers' Guide Retrospective (1890 - 1982) - UW restricted
  Readers' Guide Retrospective is a database containing comprehensive indexing of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States from 1890-1982.
• Critical Survey of Short Fiction (7 vols.), PN 3321 .C7 1981.
  Organized by the author's last name, articles focus more generally on the writer's achievements than on specific stories. Criticism is limited to a story's relationship to the author's complete body of work.
• Short Story Criticism (1988 - ), PN 3373 .S387.
  Features extensive information on short story writers including biographical sketches, primary bibliographies, and critical excerpts from a variety of sources including journal articles and books.
• Twentieth-Century Short Story Explication, Z 5917 .S5 W35.
  Contains nearly 6000 entries that provide interpretations of short fiction in both books and journals from 1900 to 1994. It is one of the most inclusive sources available; international in scope, covering stories written in the 20th century and prior. Arranged alphabetically by the story's author and then by story's title, first use the Index to the Third Edition and Its Five Supplements, then scan individual volumes of the New Series.

Short Fiction Reference Tools:

There are a number of printed sources that provide information about short fiction--bibliographies that focus on a particular ethnic group, overviews of the history of the short story in a particular era, country or region, biographical information about short story authors, or indexes to specific groups of stories. Below is a list of some of these resources--all are available in Suzzallo Reference (1st Floor) unless otherwise indicated:

• Afro-American Short Story: A Comprehensive Annotated Index with Selected Commentaries, Z 1229 .N39 Y36 1986.
  Index to 850 stories by approximately 300 authors that were written between1950-1982. Covers stories published in periodicals, collections and anthologies.
• American Indian in Short Fiction: An Annotated Bibliography, Z1231 .F4 B441979.
• Asian-American Short Fiction Writers, an A to Z Guide, PS 153 .A84 828 2003.
• Chicorel Index to Short Stories in Anthologies & Collections (12 volumes), PN 3321 .C49.
  Indexed by author and title and includes 60,000 entries. International in coverage, including translations into English.
• Index to Best American Short Stories and O. Henry Prize Stories, Z1231.F4.W52 1988.
  A separate index to all stories published in the series The Best American Short Stories (1915-1987) and Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards (1919-1987-).
• Index to Periodical Fiction in English, 1965-1969, Z2014.F5 M475.
• Masterplots II: Short Story Series (6 vols), OUGL Reference: PN3326 .M27 1986
• Reader's Companion to the Short Story in English, PS 374 .S5 R43 2001.
• The Short Story in English: Britain and North America: an Annotated Bibliography, Suzzallo/Allen Stacks: Z2014.S5 B35 1994. 
• Twentieth-Century European Short Story: An Annotated Bibliography, Z 5917 .S5 M39 1989.
• Reference Guide to Short Fiction - UW restricted
  Arranged alphabetically by author it includes a primary bibliography, a list of other sources of criticism, and a signed essay on the author's achievements. It is international in scope and covers many centuries. The second half of the book includes signed articles on specific short stories.

Short Fiction Online: