Get an In-Depth Look at Literature and Short Stories

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A row of books with the text that reads Access the Poetry & Short Story Reference Center Database

Short stories and poems contain layers of depth and meaning. Casual readers may enjoy the emotions and concepts explored, while literary scholars and enthusiasts can take deeper dives into themes, academic interpretations, and even examinations of writers’ bodies of work. No matter which type of reader you are, there is a lot to explore in the Literary Reference Center and the Poetry & Short Story Reference Center. Use your PPLD library card to access these databases to explore full text poems and stories, articles, and author information for thousands of classic and contemporary writers. Students will also find these databases useful.  

The Literary Reference Center offers thousands of synopses, critical essays, book reviews, literary journals, and author biographies covering work from all genres and time periods. For high school and college students, the Research Guide tab on the Literary Reference Center home page is a useful tool where you can find handouts and guides to assist with research steps, essay organization, developing thesis statements, and more. You will also find full-text classical novels, short stories, and poems that you can read.  

In the Poetry & Short Story Reference Center, you will find thousands of full-text classic and contemporary poems and short stories. Each poem or short story includes information such as author details, poetic form, themes, techniques used, literary genre and movement, subject, and other key information. Essays, reviews, analyses, and author biographies in this database allow you to explore these and other works more in-depth. Additionally, you can discover high-quality videos and audio recordings from the Academy of American Poets. For educators, there is an extensive selection of lesson plans to help bring these literary works into your classroom.  

Access these databases at any Pikes Peak Library District location, or El Paso County residents can access remotely from anywhere (must have a resident library card, which starts with a 4).