Having trouble accessing government information? See the Libraries’ guide to Alternative Sources for Federal Information and Data.

Research Methods for English and Comparative Literature: Finding Short Stories & Short Story Criticism: Background Resources

Biographical Sources for Short Story Writers

Gale Literature Resource Center
Offers a wealth of critical and biographical information about more than 120,000 authors from the Classical period to the present. It provides several hundred thousand full text journal articles and other critical essays, thousands of plot summaries and links to authoritative Web sites, over 100,000 author biographies, several thousand author portraits, and the Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature.

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users. North Carolina residents with a borrower's card may access from off campus by visiting NCLive directly. Contact the Davis Library Service Desk for the NCLive password (instructions).
Coverage: Classical Period to Present
Literary Reference Plus
Offers a wealth of material with which to study and analyze literature: plot summaries, critical essays, author biographies, literary journals, book reviews, poems, short stories, and author interviews. It also provides reference material such as several encyclopedias of literature.

Access: Off Campus Access is available for: UNC-Chapel Hill students, faculty, and staff; UNC Hospitals employees; UNC-Chapel Hill affiliated AHEC users.

The Columbia Companion to the Twentieth-Century American Short Story
Provides thematic essays as well as essays on more than 100 individual American short story writers.
A Reader's Companion to the Short Story in English
Includes bio-critical articles on approximately 50 English-language short story writers from around the world, most active since 1960.
Reference Guide to Short Fiction
Provides bio-critical essays and bibliographies for 376 short story writers from around the world (from Boccaccio to the present). The second section of the book has 403 essays on individual short stories.