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Poetry and Short Story Reviews and Criticism

Finding articles on specific poetry

• MLA Bibliography, 1963-Present :

  Collects citations to studies of poets and their poetry in scholarly journals. For help in searching, please look at our MLA Brief Search Guide . To interpret your results use our MLA Citation Guide.

• Martinez, Nancy C., and Joseph G. R. Martinez. Guide to British Poetry Explication. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1991. (016.82109 M363G / English Library Reference)

  Collects citations to criticism on individual poems under author headings. Like American Poetry Explication, often the first and best place to go for such criticism.

• Poetry Criticism. Detroit: Gale Research, 1991-. (Q. 809.1 P7532 / English Library Reference)

  A Multi-volume set which provides an introduction to major poets from all eras and nationalities. Each volume selects 8-10 authors and reprints selected criticism of their works. The most recent volume indexes all previous volumes.

• Ruppert, James, and John R. Leo. Guide to American Poetry Explication. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1989. (016.81109 G941 / English Library Reference)

  Collects citations to criticism on individual poems under author headings. Often the first and best place to go for such criticism.

Finding where a poem has been published

• The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry in Anthologies. Ed. Nicholas Frankovich. 11th , completely rev. ed. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997. (016.8081 G76I1997 / English Library Reference)

  Indexes poems which have been published in anthologies. Provides an index for Title, First Line, Last Line, Author, and Subject.

• The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry in Collected and Selected Works. Eds. Nicholas Frankovich and Edith Granger. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. (016.8081 G76I1996 / English Library Reference)

  As opposed to Anthologies, this volume indexes poems which have appeared in collected or selected editions by major poets. Provides an index for Title, First Line, Author, and Subject.

• The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry .

  Online database with various search options to help you locate where a poem has been printed. This electronic resource also contains commentaries, biographies that are followed by a short bibliography, notes on form and a glossary of prosodic terms.

• Index of American Periodical Verse. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1973-. (016.80881 IN23 / English Library Reference)

  Indexes poems which have appeared in magazines or journals between 1971-1996. Annual volumes.

Full-Text Poetry Databases

• The American Poetry Database :

  Features the works of more than 200 American poets, along with six landmark anthologies of American poetry. The database gathers the works of the most influential American poets, from the Colonial period to the early twentieth century.

• The English Poetry Database :

  Full-Text database of works by almost 1,350 poets from 600-1900.

• The Database of African American Poetry :

  Covers the works of 54 African-American poets writing in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

• Poets' Corner:

  A general poetry source arranged by Author and Title. Reprints selected poems by a variety of authors, though they lack citations for print versions of the poems.

• Representative Poetry On-Line :

  University of Toronto's searchable full-text database of English poetry from the medieval period to the early twentieth century.

Biographical Resources

• Contemporary Authors :

  A bio-bibliographical guide to current writers in fiction, general nonfiction, poetry, journalism, drama, motion pictures, television, and other fields. Provides complete biographical and bibliographical references for more than 90,000 authors in the U.S. and around the world.

• Contemporary Poets. Ed. Thomas Riggs. 6th ed. Detroit: St. James Press, 1996. (Q.928.21 C7671996 / English Library Reference)

  Provides brief biographical and bibliographic information for poets, as well as contact information when available.

• Dictionary of Literary Biography (DLB) :

  Documents the lives and careers of authors from all eras and genres. As DLB is augmented several times over the course of a year, it will grow to include essays on more than 6,000 authors.

Classroom Resources

• The Modern American Poetry Site

• Maintained here at the University of Illinois, MAPS includes a range of resources for teachers and students of modern American poetry, including syllabi, biographical information, excerpted interviews, and criticism

Short Story Reviews and Criticism

• Short Story Criticism. Detroit: Gale Research, 1988-. (Q.809.31 SH81 / English Library Reference)

  A Multi-volume set which provides an introduction to major short story writers from all eras and nationalities. Each volume selects 8-10 authors and reprints selected criticism of their short stories. The most recent volume indexes all previous volumes.

• Short Story Index. New York: H.W. Wilson, 1953-. (A.808.3C77S / English Library Reference)

  Indexes where Short Stories have been published. The first volume supersedes the Index to Short Stories published in 1923 and additional volumes index through 1995.

• Walker, Warren S., and Barbara K. Walker. Twentieth-Century Short Story Explication: Interpretations 1900-1975 of Short Fiction Since 1800. 3rd ed. Hamden, CT: Shoe String Press, 1977. [With supplements.] (016.8093 W15T / English Library Reference)

For comments on this page contact: Harriett Green.

Last modified by: Peter Coco on 10/8/08