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ENGL - Short Stories: Books

Library Books

Use the Library Discovery system (see the link below) to search for books by keyword, title, author, or by using the subject search option. 

Example search terms:
Hemingway, Ernest
History & Criticism
Short Story
Short Story (Literary Form)
Short Story Analysis
Short Story Collections
Short Story Criticism
Short Story Cycle
Short Story Genre
Short Story Interpretation
Short Story Writing
Short Stories

Short Stories/Short Fiction

Short Story Indexes

  • Short Story Index (Ref. PN3373.C62)
  • Short Story Index: An Index to Stories in Collections and Periodicals (Ref. PN3373.C62)
  • Twentieth Century Short Story Explication (Ref. PN 3373.W33)
  • Twentieth Century Short Story Explication: With Checklists of Books and Journals Used (Ref. PN3373.W35)

Short Story Collections

For a collection of stories by a specific writer, do an author search through the Library Discovery system. Example author: Joyce Carol Oates, Heat and Other Stories (PS3565.A8 H43) or Alice Munro, Selected Stories (PR9199.3.M8 A6)

  • The Best American Short Stories of the Century (PS648.S5 B4)
  • American Voices: Best Short Fiction by Contemporary Authors (PS648.S5 A56)
  • Pow Wow: Charting the Fault Lines in the American Experience: Short Fiction from Then to Now (PS647.E85 P68)
  • The Oxford Book of American Short Stories (PS648.S5 O94)
  • The Oxford Book of English Detective Stories (PR1309.D4 O94)
  • The Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories (PR1309.S3 O97)

Biographical Information

Biographical information:

Print books and eBooks are available that provide a brief biographical overview of an author. Full-length biographies on many short story writers may be found through the  Library Discovery system by doing a subject search on the writer's last name or search in the EBSCOhost eBook Collection.  Some authors write in multiple genres, such as drama, fiction, non-fiction, or poetry. (Example author: John Updike) An index to biographical sources is the Biography and Genealogy Master Index. This index will list sources providing biographical information about authors. 

Use the database WorldCat (OCLC) to search for books in other libraries in addition to NSU libraries.

Here are some books from the library collection that could be useful:

  • American Authors, 1600-1900: A Biographical Dictionary (Ref. PS21.K8)
  • A Companion to American Fiction, 1865-1914 (PS377.C665)
  • British Authors Before 1800 (Ref. PR105.K9)
  • British Authors of the Nineteenth Century (Ref. PR451.K8)
  • The Contemporary American Short-Story Cycle: The Ethnic Resonance of Genre (PS374.S5 N34)
  • Contemporary Authors (Ref. PN 451.C58)
  • Dictionary of Literary Biography (Ref. PN451.D32)
  • Introduction to Literary Context: American Short Fiction (PS374.S5 I587) For the eBook, search in Salem Press Titles.
  • Masterplots, 4th edition (Ref. PN44 .M33) For the eBook, search in Salem Press Titles.
  • Masterplots II: American Fiction Series (Ref. PS373.M37)
  • Masterplots II: Short Story Series (Ref. PN3326.M27)
  • Twentieth Century Authors (Ref. PN771.K86)
  • The Victorian Short Story: Development and Triumph of a Literary Genre (PR829.O7)
  • Something About the Author (Ref. PN451.S6) - print v.1 - v.232 (1971-2012) biographical-young adult literature

Literary Critcisms

General criticisms can be located in books or journal articles. 

Here are some books that offer a quick overview to "short story" criticisms:

  • The Contemporary American Short-Story Cycle: The Ethnic Resonance of Genre (PS374.S5 N34)
  • Introduction to Literary Context (PS374.S5 I587) See online version via Salem Press Titles
  • Scribbling Women and the Short Story Form: Approaches by American and British Women Writers (PS374.S5 S37)
  • Sharing Secrets: Nineteenth Century Women's Relations in the Short Story (PS374.W6 P35)
  • Short Fiction Criticism: A Checklist of Interpretation Since 1925 of Stories and Novelettes (American, British, Continental) 1800-1958 (PN3373.T5)
  • Critical Insights: Contemporary Immigrant Short Fiction (PS508.I45 C668) See online version via Salem Press Titles

Example Authors (Biographical/Criticism)

For more in-depth general critical information or biographical information about an author, do a subject search on the author's last name using the Library Discovery. (i.e. Updike, John or Porter, Katherine Anne or Chopin, Kate or Gilman Charlotte Perkins, or Poe, Edgar Allan.)

Reference Books