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Introduction to Short FictionRead this brief module for a basic approach to reading and analyzing short fiction.
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How To Read More Short Story Collections | Book RiotBook Riot Staff Writer, Carina Pereira, shares things they have learned to fall back in love with reading short fiction and how to finish collections you have always wanted to start (or finish).
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Subject: Short storiesUse this subject search to see all materials about short fiction, including book collections, journal articles, and more.
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Search: Flannery O'Connor Award for Short FictionUse this keyword search to see all materials in our collection about the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction.
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Search: Prairie Schooner Book Prize in FictionUse this keyword search to see all materials in our collection about the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction.
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43 of the Most Iconic Short Stories in the English Language | LitHubFrom Washington Irving to Kristen Roupenian. When something is iconic, it is a highly recognizable cultural artifact that can be used as a shorthand—which often means it has been referenced in other forms of media. An iconic short story may be frequently anthologized, which usually means frequently read in classrooms, something that can lead to cultural ubiquity—but interestingly, the correlation isn’t perfect.
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Best Short Stories of 2023 | Library JournalView 11 top titles curated by the Library Journal.
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Best Short Fiction of 2023 | Kirkus ReviewsView 13 top titles curated by the Kirkus Reviews.
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The PEN/Bernard and Ann Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short StoryEstablished in 1988 and awarded annually to a writer who demonstrates dedication to the craft of the short story and whose stories are exceptionally well-realized, the PEN/Bernard and Ann Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story is one of the nation’s most significant literary prizes for the form. Scroll down the page for a list of past winners.
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The O. Henry Prize Collection SeriesThe oldest major prize for short fiction in America. Awarded annually since 1919 (with a break in 2020), the prize seeks to provide a prominent platform for short story writers from all around the world and at all points in their careers.
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The Cambridge Companion to the American Short Story
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This Companion offers students and scholars a comprehensive introduction to the development and the diversity of the American short story as a literary form from its origins in the eighteenth century to the present day. Rather than define what the short story is as a genre, or defend its importance in comparison with the novel, this Companion seeks to understand what the short story does - how it moves through national space, how it is always related to other genres and media, and how its inherent mobility responds to the literary marketplace and resonates with key critical themes in contemporary literary studies. The chapters offer authoritative introductions and reinterpretations of a literary form that has re-emerged as a major force in the twenty-first-century public sphere dominated by the Internet.
ISBN: 9781009292818Publication Date: 2023-05-25 -
The Edinburgh companion to the short story in English
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New scholarly essays on the short story in English as a phenomenon of world literature. This collection explores the history and development of the anglophone short story since the beginning of the nineteenth century. Ranging across texts from different parts of the English-speaking world, it studies the form in its many guises and venues of publication. Why have writers of so many nationalities and dispositions found the short story amenable to experimentation and discovery? What is the history and origin of the modern short story, and what has been the role of the publishing business, of academic criticism, of the Creative Writing 'industry', and of the digital revolution in shaping and disseminating it over the past two centuries? This collection of innovative essays by new and established scholars explores these and other questions, addressing stories from around the world, and considering their relationship to place, identity, history and genre.
ISBN: 9781474400664Publication Date: 2019 -
Reading the Short Story: A Student's Guide to Selected British, Irish, & American Works
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Beginning with a brief history and evolution of the short story genre, alongside an overview of the key short story writers, and an explanatory chapter of literary criticism, this book aims to give readers insight into the works by canonical British, Irish, and American authors, including Edgar Allan Poe, James Joyce, Flannery O'Connor, and more. Applying close reading skills and critical literary approaches to twelve selected short stories in English, this work conducts comparative analyses to reveal the interrelationships between the texts, the authors, the readers, and the sociocultural contexts. Developed and tested in literature classes at university over several semesters, this book addresses key issues, topics and trends in the short story genre.
ISBN: 9781476673981Publication Date: 2019-11-11 -
Short Stories for Students, Vol. 49: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on commonly studied short stories
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ISBN: 1410365654Publication Date: 2019-08-09Provides critical overviews of short stories from all cultures and time periods. Includes discussions of plot, characters, themes and structure as well as the story's cultural and historical significance. -
America: History & Life
An index of scholarly literature, including citations for journal articles, book and media reviews, and dissertations, about United States and Canadian history and culture from prehistoric times to the present.
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Cambridge CompanionsA series of authoritative guides and critical essays on topics and periods related to literature and classics, music, philosophy, religion, and culture.
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Literature Criticism Online (Gale)
Extensive compilation of introductory commentary and criticism on literature from the classical to contemporary era, including poetry and short stories. Includes the following collections: Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism, Contemporary Literary Criticism, Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800, Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, Poetry Criticism, Short Story Criticism, and Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism.
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JSTOR
Archive of 2,400 leading academic journals in the humanities, social sciences, sciences, and business. Narrow results by discipline(s).
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MLA Directory of PeriodicalsIncludes directory and descriptive information for more than 7,100 periodicals in literature, language, linguistics, and folklore from the Modern Language Association (MLA).
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MLA International Bibliography with Full TextArticles from several thousand journals in literature, linguistics, and folklore, plus books and dissertations (Modern Language Association, 1926-present).
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Oxford Dictionary of National BiographyProvides concise, illustrated biographies of over 57,000 people associated with the British Isles, from the 4th century BC to the 21st century. This is the first place to go for British biographical information and bibliographies of additional biographical sources.
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Oxford English Dictionary (OED)Contains etymologies, definitions and usage of English worldwide, from 1150 to the present.
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Project MUSE
Provides access to the full-text of several scholarly journals and books from many of the world's leading university presses and scholarly societies. Much of the journal content focuses on the humanities, arts, and social sciences (mid-1990s to present), plus recent books on global studies and literature.
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Opposing Viewpoints (Gale In Context)
This resource provides authoritative articles, research reports, videos, and statistics to help demonstrate both sides of today’s most debated political and social issues.
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Cambridge History of Literary CriticismNine Volumes cover classical criticism through the twentieth century. (This link is to Vol. 1. Other volumes can be accessed from the Cambridge Histories platform.)
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IPL Online Literary Criticism CollectionCritical and biographical websites about authors and their works that can be browsed by author, by title, or by nationality and literary period.
http://www.ipl.org/div/litcrit/
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Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & CriticismReference PN 81 J64 2005
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Literature Criticism Online (Gale)
Extensive compilation of introductory commentary and criticism on literature from the classical to contemporary era, including poetry and short stories. Includes the following collections: Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism, Contemporary Literary Criticism, Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800, Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, Poetry Criticism, Short Story Criticism, and Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism.
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Brief Intro to Short Fiction
A short story is a brief work of narrative prose. The history of episodic literature has included a variety forms such as jests, fables, and fairy tales. Short fiction was previously not considered its own genre; the modern short story as we know it emerged in the 19th century, especially in the United States where there is a strong tradition.
Short fiction has no formally defined length and a story can be anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000 words, though this high range begins to reach novella territory and flash fiction can be much shorter. Ernest Hemingway is famously credited with writing a moving six-word story. Short fiction is designed to be read in one sitting, though critics and avid readers often encourage a second reading.
A short story typically centers around a single event or central theme with only a few characters and scenes. The form encourages economy, but despite deliberate and concise writing, authors employ a variety of devices and styles to deliver an arresting experience for their readers.
Reading Short Fiction
New to short fiction and don't know where to start? We have curated resources in and out of the Creighton University Libraries to help jumpstart your reading journey. Start with these two links:
Searching for Short Fiction
JaySearch Tips: Searching by Genre, Key Titles, or Subject
If you're interested in other short stories or collections, you can search our catalog, JaySearch, using filters like Genre or Subject, as well as searching for key titles awarded by prizes. In JaySearch, under Advance Search, change the search filter from the "Title" default to another category using the dropdown menu. Once you have entered a search, use the "Resource Type" limiter on the lefthand side to limit the catalog results for more scholarly information, reviews for book reviews, or books if you're looking to read a collection or anthology of short stories.
If we don't carry a print or electronic title, be sure to try requesting via InterLibrary Loan or work with a librarian to help find what you're looking for.
Use the link(s) below to browse select materials the University Libraries has access to.
