Short Fiction

Using FRANCIS   Using Indexes   Reference Sources  

Using FRANCIS

FRANCIS, the library catalog is available on the library's webpage or directly at http://francis.williams.edu. Using FRANCIS you may locate collections of short stories as well as works on short fiction as a literary form.

Collections of short stories

Use the subject heading Short Stories. This subject is divided geographically and by language.
Examples of relevant subject headings:

Short Stories - American
Short Stories - American - Women Authors
Short Stories - English
Short Stories - English Translations From
Short Stories - French
Short Stories - Spanish
Short Stories - Czech
Short Stories - Cuban
Short Stories - Latin American
Short Stories - Women Authors

Research on short stories

The subject heading Short story is used for all works on short stories as a literary form and the art of short story writing.

Using Indexes

Short Story Index Sawyer REF PN3451 .S5
Great tool to locate short stories published in periodicals and in collections. Covers short stories written in or translated into English. Organized alphabetically by Title, Author and Subject. The list of collections and journals indexed is available in the back of each index.

Humanities Abstracts
Index to scholarly journals for literature and humanities.
Use the subject "Short Stories" . You may also use "Short Stories-English language" , "Short Stories-Spanish Language" , etc. There is no way to limit by subject. You may only limit by author, words in the title of the story, date or journal title.
For example, you may search for "Short Stories - Spanish Language" then limit to Garcia Marquez.

Reader's Guide to Periodicals Literature Web Index
Similar to the Humanities Index but for more "popular" magazines such as the New Yorker, Esquire, Atlantic. Use the subject "Short Stories" . You can only limit by author, words in the title, date or journal title.
For example, you may search for "Short Stories" then limit to "Louise Erdrich" and "Mooz"
or Search for "Short Stories" then limit to "New Yorker" and "2000"

The library does not subscribe to all the journals indexed in Humanities Index and the Readers' Guide. The message "not held locally" means that the journal is not at Williams and that you may need to request the article through Interlibrary Loan .


Expanded Academic Index Web Index
Great source to locate recent short stories in popular and academic journals. Most short stories are full-text online! Go to the Advanced Search then search for "Short Stories" as a subject. You may limit by author, work in the title, date or name of publication. Because the Expanded Academic Index includes some full-text, you may also search for words appearing in a story.
For example, search for "Short Stories" then limit to the word "immigration" in the text (by using the prefix "tx"). 29 short stories include the word immigration!

Reference Sources

Masterplots II Short Fiction Series
Sawyer REF PN3326 .M27 1986
Contains critical evaluations of short stories written by world authors. The Keyword List, Geographical Index, Title Index, Author Index are great tools to locate short stories. Includes a lengthy summary of the story with a list of the characters.

Reference Guide to Short Fiction
Sawyer REF PN3373 .R36 1994
Covers significant authors of short fiction from the 19th and 20th century. Each entry includes a biography of the author, a complete list of the writer's published books, a selected list of bibliographies and critical studies. Includes a good title index . Good to locate information on an author and list of works.

Short Fiction: a critical companion
Sawyer REF PS374.S5 E93 1997
Focusing on short stories by forty famous English-language authors, this book is particularly useful for summary of criticisms and analysis. The detailed Topic Index is useful to locate stories by subject.

Facts on File Companion to the American Short Story
Sawyer REF PS374.S5 F33 2000
One volume encyclopedia focusing on American short story as a genre. Organized alphabetically by author and topics. Especially useful for its list of the Winners of selected short story prizes and the Suggested Readings by theme and topic .

The Latin American Short Story: an annotated guide to anthologies and criticism
Sawyer REF PQ7082.S5 B35 1992