Guides: English: Getting Started

Welcome to your English guide!

This guide includes information and quick links to help you do library research in the field of English.

Explore the guide to find more information about relevant reference sources, books, articles, films, creative writing resources, professional associations, and how to organize and cite your sources.

Start with Reference

Reference sources can provide information about the topic and lead to concepts and keywords to use in your research.

Representative print and online reference sources for the discipline of English are listed below. Print reference sources are located on the main floor of Preus Library.

Reference Sources

Specialized dictionaries, encyclopedias, and subject bibliographies can be helpful in choosing and narrowing a topic. Reading in the specialized reference materials introduces background information and can provide key concepts or keywords to use in your search. This is just a selection. Search the reference databases below for more sources.

Specialized Online Reference Works

Contemporary Authors New Revision Series
Call Number: EBOOK

A biographical and bibliographical guide to current writers in all fields including poetry, fiction and nonfiction, journalism, drama, television and movies.
Contemporary Authors Series
Call Number: EBOOK

Provides biographical details on thousands of modern novelists, poets, playwrights, nonfiction writers, journalists and scriptwriters. Includes current writers as well as the most-studied literary figures of the early 20th century and authors from around the world.
The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature
Call Number: EBOOK

Includes essays on poets, playwrights, essayists, and novelists, as well as major works and essays on literary movements, periods, and themes.
The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature
Call Number: EBOOK

Provides comprehensive coverage of the entire history of literature in the UK and the Republic of Ireland in the major literary languages (Anglo-Saxon, English, Welsh, Scots, Irish, and Latin). It includes accounts of individual authors and histories of particular themes, movements, genres, and institutions.
Scribner Writers Online Series
Call Number: EBOOK

Bio-critical essays on the lives and works of more than 1,400 important authors from around the world. Entries include concise essays, citations, and biographical information that places the author's work in personal and historical context.
Twayne's Author Series
Call Number: EBOOK

Twayne's is devoted to literary critical interpretation and discussion. It offers in-depth critical introductions to the lives and works of major writers of the world, including close analysis of key works. It provides insightful and original commentary on the history and influence of literary movements.

General Online Reference Databases

Credo Reference
An online collection of over 600 full-text reference works, including encyclopedias, dictionaries, and more.
Gale Virtual Reference Library
A collection of over 3,000 reference works, covering all disciplines.
Oxford Reference Online
This online source provides access to subject and language reference works from Oxford University Press. In addition to text, access is provided to maps and illustrations, timelines, web sites, and bibliographies.

Specialized Print Reference Works

Browse the Reference Section or search the library's catalog for more titles.

African American Writers
Critical anthology of authors and topics related to African American writers. Biographical information and references. Two volumes.
Reference PS153 .N5 A344 2001 v.1-2
Columbia History of the British Novel
Contains articles about the history of the British novel and individual authors. Consult the contents and the index.
Main Stacks PR821 .C65 1994
Dictionary of Literary Biography
More than two hundred volumes of biographical and critical essays on literary figures in historical context.
Main Stacks PN451 .D5
Encyclopedia of African American Women Writers
This two volume set provides critical overviews of African American women writers. Each entry includes a biography, major works, criticism, and select bibliography.
Reference PS153 .N5 E49 2007
Guide to American Poetry Explication
Extensive bibliography on American poetry, arranged alphabetically by poet. Volume one: Colonial and Nineteenth Century. Volume two: Modern and Contemporary.
Main Stacks PS201 .G84 1989 v.1-2
Guide to British Prose Fiction Explication
Bibliography of articles on British prose fiction works, arranged alphabetically by author and title. Useful for finding explications of British fiction from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Main Stacks PR861 .B38 1997
Harlem Renaissance and Beyond: Literary Biographies of 100 Black Women Writers, 1900-1945
Consult the contents for the alphabetical list of biographies on women writers who contributed to the Harlem Renaissance. A selective bibliography accompanies each entry, with full bibliography at the end.
Main Stacks PF153 .N5 R65 1990
Oxford Campanion to Women's Writing in the United States
Signed critical essays on women writers, feminism and related literary topics. Full biographies.
Reference PS147 .O94 1995