Research Guides: Introduction to Areas of Study (HC): English

English

American soldier reading in France, 1919 (Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

Blogs and News

Brittle Paper
News, articles and literature from African writers.
English and Drama blog
From the British Library
The Millions
Long-running site with reviews, personal essays, previews, news items and author interviews.
MLA Commons
A collection of blogs and news provided by the Modern Language Association.
NaNoWriMo
This non-profit group provides tools, structure, community, and encouragement to help people find their voices, achieve creative goals, and build new worlds through writing.

Companion Series

Companions and handbooks are a publication type that has flourished in the last decade. The goal is for leading scholars to provide a thorough description of the subject matter of a field while also giving the most current interpretations of key questions. Each essay in a companion reflects an important subject facet and identifies the books and articles which are crucial for a greater understanding. Companions for literature include:

Blackwell Companions

Cambridge Companions

Oxford Handbooks

Literature Reviews

Literature reviews are a particularly useful resource when doing research. They address the issues involved in a particular question and the debates among scholars. They map out the intellectual terrain succinctly and give you the major landmarks in terms of key authors and significant titles for greater understanding. It is one of the best places to find discussion of issues that are unresolved or in contention.

Literature Compass
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This journal exclusively publishes literature reviews of current scholarship.
American Literature in Oxford Bibliographies Online
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Offers over 200 annotated bibliographies dealing with American literature. Search in Oxford Bibliographies for more entries about authors, literary movements and cultural history in other sections of the database.
Literary and Critical Theory in Oxford Bibliographies Online
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Offers over 100 annotated bibliographies dealing with literary theory. Search in Oxford Bibliographies for more entries about authors, literary movements and cultural history in other sections of the database.

Journal Indexes

MLA International Bibliography
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Database of scholarly books and articles related to literature, language, linguistics, film, theater and folklore. Includes scholarship from 1926 to the present.
Annual Bibliography of English Language & Literature
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The Modern Humanities Research Association's (MHRA) Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL) indexes books, pamphlets, dissertations, and articles from 1300 English-language periodicals, arranging listings by period with an author/subject index at the back. Citations to book reviews appear with entries for books, making it easier to check critical opinion when evaluating a book's scholarship.

Major Journals

College English
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This journal publishes articles on both literature and composition as well as other disciplinary concerns. Editors are open to all theoretical approaches and schools of thought.
English Journal
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Published by the National Council of Teachers of English
PMLA (Publications of the Modern Language Association)
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This journal publishes a rich assortment of scholarship, opinion pieces and reports.

Associations and Conferences

American Literature Association
See information about conferences as well as resources.
Modern Language Association
National organization dedicated to the study and teaching of language and literature.
Pen America
This organization champions writers' freedom of expression around the world.
Poets & Writers
The nation's largest non-profit organization serving creative writers.

Staying Current

Interviews with Authors
The Paris Review published in-depth conversations with authors around the world.
Tricollege Libraries Creative Writing Guide
This guide to resources includes lists of literary magazines you can browse, anthologies of new writing, links to graduate programs and resources for getting published.
Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory
An evaluative narrative review of scholarly work on English language and literatures published during the most recent year. Has included chapters on American literature since volume 35 (1954) and on the Commonwealth literatures since volume 63 (1982).
Good source for finding out how scholars value a recent critical study or the latest biography of an author.
Year's work in English studies
An evaluative narrative review of scholarly work on English language and literatures published during the most recent year. Has included chapters on American literature since volume 35 (1954) and on the Commonwealth literatures since volume 63 (1982).
Good source for finding out how scholars value a recent critical study or the latest biography of an author.

More Resources at Haverford

Subject librarians make research guides for individual classes and for topics. Browse for information on different subjects. See this introduction to research guides video for more information. Research guides for courses in English include:

ENGL 233: Caribbean Authors: A New Wave

ENGL 278: Contemporary Women Writers

WRPR 199: Childhood and Children's Literature