Research Guides: Literature & Creative Writing: Overview

Guide Contents

This guide is intended as one starting point for creative writers. For deeper insight into specific disciplines, such as history or psychology, please to the the research guides for those subjects, guides.smu.edu.

See Finding Places to Publish, to find opportunities for publication.

Recommended Databases

Communication Source
Communication Source offers abstracts and indexing as well as full-text content from publications worldwide pertaining to Communication, Linguistics, Rhetoric and Discourse, Speech-Language Pathology, Media Studies and other fields relevant to the discipline.
Film & Television Literature Index
Comprehensive bibliographic database covering the entire spectrum of television and film writing.
Film Literature Index
The Film Literature Index (FLI) annually indexes film and television periodicals. The periodicals range from the scholarly to the popular. More than 2,000 subject headings provide detailed analysis of the articles. The FLI Online contains citations to articles, film reviews and book reviews published between 1976-2001
Popular Culture Collection
Scholarly journals and magazines that both analyze and contribute to popular culture.

Research Help by Topic

Literary Periods
Research by era: Ancient, Medieval, Early Modern Age of Revolutions, Modern to Contemporary
Literature & Geographical Regions
American, British, Postcolonial, Southern, and Western lit
Literary Genres: Form
Novels, Plays & Drama, Poetry, Short Stories
Literary Genres: Theme
Crime & Mystery Fiction, Folk & Fairy Tales, Gothic & Horror Stories, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction & Fantasy Lit, and Environment & Ecology in Fiction
Literature: Diversity & Multiculturalism
Literatures of different people and groups: African & African American, Hispanic & Latin American, Jewish, Native American, Disabilities, Women & Gender, and LBGTQIA
Literature & Creative Writing
Of particular use to those with creative writing specialization
Literature: Graduate & Advanced Studies
Additional resources, including digital humanities info, for advanced researchers, graduate students, & faculty members
Literature: Reference and More
Contains the odd database that may be of use, book reviews, dictionaries, finding biographical info, LC Call #s for literature, and MLA citation style help.

Research Librarian

Rebecca Graff

Contact:

regraff@smu.edu

Subjects: English, Medieval Studies

Background & Reference

Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape
Call Number: Fondren Library, Red, G108.E5 H66 2006
Barry Lopez asked 45 poets and writers to define terms that describe America's land and water forms -- phrases like flatiron, bayou, monadnock, kiss tank, meander bar, and everglade. The result is a major enterprise comprising over 850 descriptions, 100 line drawings, and 70 quotations from works by Willa Cather, Truman Capote, John Updike, Cormac McCarthy, and others.

Oxford Bibliographies: Communication
Offers exclusive, authoritative research guides that combine the best features of an annotated bibliography and a high-level encyclopedia.