So, you’ve found the perfect short story to support your essay. You pulled a great quote, and now you just need to cite it. Easy, right? Not so fast. Citing a short story is a special case. It’s not like citing a whole book, because most citations for a short story point to a piece of writing inside a larger container, like an anthology, a collection, or a website. This guide will show you how to cite a short story correctly so you can get full credit for your work.
TLDR: The Core Idea
When you cite a short story, you must credit both the short story author and the source where you found it. This means your citation will have two titles: the title of the short story (in quotation marks) and the title of the container (in italics), like the book title or the website name. The specifics of how to cite a short story change between MLA, APA, and Chicago styles, but this two-level concept is the key.
Why Citing a Short Story Is Tricky
The main challenge is what academics call the “container.” Think of it like this: the short story is the soda, but it came in a can (an anthology), a 12-pack (a collection by the same author), or a soda fountain (a website). You can’t just cite the soda; you have to cite where it came from. Your citation needs to guide your reader to the exact “can” you’re holding. I remember the first time I cited a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. I just cited the anthology as a whole, and my professor marked it wrong. It’s a common slip-up because you have to give credit to two different authors: the short story author and the editor of the anthology.
The Big Three: MLA, APA, and Chicago
Your teacher will usually assign a specific citation style. For an English, language, or American literature essay, you’ll almost certainly use MLA. For social sciences like psychology or education, you’ll use APA. For history, you might use Chicago. Short stories can be cited using various styles, including MLA, APA, and Chicago. We’ll cover all three, but we’ll focus most on MLA as it’s the most common for a short story essay.
MLA: The English Class Favorite
MLA (Modern Language Association) is the go-to for literary analysis. The entire MLA style is built on a system of core elements in containers, which is perfect for creating citations for a short story. You’ll have a Works Cited page at the end of your essay and a brief in-text citation in your paragraphs.
MLA Works Cited: A Short Story in an Anthology (A Book with an Editor)
This is the most common way you’ll cite a short story. You found it in a textbook or a collection of stories by different authors. In MLA citation, the author’s name, title of the short story, title of the collection, publisher, and year of publication are included. You also need to add the editor (or editors) of the anthology and the page range of the entire short story.
When you have a short story from a textbook, the format for citing short stories from textbooks in MLA includes both the author of the story and the editor as a contributor after the title. This is a very common requirement.
Here is the general format. It’s a punctilious arrangement, but you can follow it like a recipe.
Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of the Short Story.” Title of the Anthology or Collection, edited by Editor’s First Name Last Name, Publisher, Year, pp. ##-##.
Here is a real citation example:
Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Cask of Amontillado.” Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama, edited by Robert DiYanni, McGraw-Hill, 2007, pp. 87-92.
If the short story is from a collection by the same author, you don’t need an editor. The book citation is simpler. For more on citing books, check out this guide on how to cite books. The same format principles apply.
MLA Works Cited: A Short Story from a Website
Finding a short story online is also common. For this, you’ll list the website name as the container. When citing a story from a website in MLA 9th edition, the format is: Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of Short Story.” Website Name, Day Month Year, URL. The date is when the short story was posted online, not when you read it. For online sources in MLA, the URL and access date are added to the Works Cited entry. (Though adding the access date is now optional in MLA 9, many instructors still prefer it, so it’s a good habit).
Here is the general format for an online short story:
Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of the Short Story.” Name of the Website, Publication Date (Day Month Year), URL.
Here is a real citation example:
Munro, Alice. “Boys and Girls.” American Literature, 2018, https://www.google.com/search?q=americanliterature.com/author/alice-munro/short-story/boys-and-girls.
This can get complicated. What if the short story author is different from the website’s author? Luckily, the MLA has a guide for that specific, brain-twisting scenario right here. For other web citation questions, see this guide on how to cite a website.
The MLA In-Text Citation
This is the parenthetical citation that goes directly after your quote or paraphrased information. It’s simple. In MLA in-text citations, the author’s last name and page number are placed in parentheses after the quotation or paraphrased information. This in-text citation connects the reader to the first word of your Works Cited entry. That’s all it does. A small detail. But an important one.
Example of an in-text citation for a short story:
The narrator’s realization comes in a sudden, devastating moment: “I didn’t want to be her mirror… I wanted to be me” (Munro 8).
This simple text citation (Munro 8) points your reader to the Munro short story entry in your Works Cited list. If you mention the author’s last name in your sentence, your in-text citation gets even simpler: just the page number.
Example of a narrative in-text citation:
In Poe’s short story, Montresor chillingly admits that his heart “grew sick” not from empathy, but “on account of the dampness of the catacombs” (92).
If your short story is from a website and has no page number, you just use the author’s last name in the text citation. If there’s no author, you use a shortened version of the short story title. Your in-text citation must always match the first word of its corresponding Works Cited entry.
A Note on Quoting Short Stories
When you write the title of a short story in your essay, you always put it in quotation marks (e.g., “The Lottery”). The book title or anthology it came from gets italics (e.g., The Lottery and Other Stories). This helps your reader distinguish the small work from the large container.
APA: The Social Sciences Style
If you’re writing an essay for psychology, education, or another social science, you’ll use APA (American Psychological Association) style. APA short story citations are similar to MLA in that they identify the short story and the container, but the formatting is different. APA puts a heavy emphasis on the publication year.
APA Reference List: A Short Story in an Edited Book (Anthology)
For APA citations, the format includes the author’s name, year, title of the short story, title of the anthology, page numbers, and publisher. A key difference from MLA is that the APA style requires the author of the short story and the editor of the book or anthology to be included in the citation. Notice the use of “In” and the placement of the editor’s name.
Here is the APA general format for a short story in an anthology:
Author’s Last Name, F. I. (Year). Title of the short story. In E. I. Editor’s Last Name (Ed.), Title of the anthology (pp. ##-##). Publisher.
Here is a real citation example:
Walker, A. (1973). Everyday use. In X. J. Kennedy & D. Gioia (Eds.), Literature: An introduction to fiction, poetry, and drama (9th ed., pp. 248-255). Pearson.
Notice that in APA, the short story title is not in quotation marks and is not capitalized like a title. It’s in sentence case. The book title is in italics and capitalized.
APA Reference List: A Short Story from a Website
An online citation in APA includes the author’s name, date, title, website name, and URL. Again, the short story title is in sentence case. The website name is in italics.
Author’s Last Name, F. I. (Year, Month Day). Title of the short story. Website Name. URL
Here is a real citation example:
Bowman, D. (2020, October 9). A walk through my life. American Literature. https://www.google.com/search?q=https://americanliterature.com/essay/a-walk-through-my-life
The APA In-Text Citation
APA’s in-text citation is different from MLA’s. It always requires the author’s last name and the year of publication. This text citation also requires a page number (with “p.”) if you are quoting directly.
Example of an APA in-text citation (Quotation):
The mother reflects on her daughter, noting, “She’d have been a good woman… if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life” (O’Connor, 1953, p. 118).
Example of an APA in-text citation (Paraphrasing):
The grandmother’s manipulative nature is evident from the first paragraph of the short story (O’Connor, 1953).
This in-text system clearly anchors your reader to the author and date in your reference list.
Chicago: The History Buff Choice
Chicago (or Turabian) is a style you’ll see in history and some humanities classes. It’s a bit more complex because it offers two systems: (1) Notes-Bibliography and (2) Author-Date. For a literary essay on a short story, you will almost always use Notes-Bibliography (N-B).
Chicago citations for short stories include elements such as author, title, periodical name, and publication information. The N-B system uses footnotes or endnotes for the in-text citation and a Bibliography at the end (which looks similar to an MLA Works Cited page).
Chicago Notes-Bibliography: The Note and the Bibliography Entry
Short story citations in the Chicago notes-bibliography style require the author, title in quotation marks, and publication details in bibliographies and footnotes. The footnote is the first citation, and it’s much longer than an MLA or APA text citation. The bibliography entry is for your final reference list.
Here is a citation example for a short story in an anthology:
Footnote Example:
1. Shirley Jackson, “The Lottery,” in The Lottery and Other Stories (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1949), 291.
Bibliography Example:
Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery.” In The Lottery and Other Stories, 291-302. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1949.
Notice the subtle-but-infuriating differences: the footnote uses commas, parentheses, and a specific page number. The bibliography entry uses periods, no parentheses, and the full page range of the short story.
The Chicago In-Text Citation (The Note)
For your in-text work, you simply place a superscript number after your quote or paraphrased information.
The short story ends with the horrific, flatly delivered line, “And then they were upon her.”¹
That little “1” corresponds to the first footnote at the bottom of the page. This method keeps the text of your essay clean, without the clutter of a parenthetical text citation, which is why some writers prefer it. It feels… crisp, like the papery sound of turning a page number[/NEWPAGE] in a dense history book.
Comparison of How to Cite a Short Story in a Book
Seeing the three main styles side-by-side can help. Here’s a quick comparison for creating citations for a short story from an anthology.
| Style | Format for Final Reference List (Works Cited / Reference List / Bibliography) |
|---|---|
| MLA 9 | Author, First. “Title of Story.” Title of Anthology, edited by Editor, Publisher, Year, pp. ##-##. |
| APA 7 | Author, F. I. (Year). Title of story. In E. I. Editor (Ed.), Title of anthology (pp. ##-##). Publisher. |
| Chicago 17 (N-B) | Author, First. “Title of Story.” In Title of Anthology, edited by Editor, ##-##. Publisher City: Publisher, Year. |
What If My Situation Is Weird?
Academic citing is full of strange situations. Creating citations is rarely straightforward. Here are a few common curveballs when figuring out how to cite a short story.
- Short story from a collection by the same author: This is easier! You just omit the editor part. For MLA, the book citation would be: Author. “Story Title.” Book Title, Publisher, Year, pp. ##-##.
- A short story in a magazine or article: Treat the magazine or journal as the container. You’ll include the article title (the short story), the periodical title, the volume, issue, date, and page numbers.
- No Author: If a short story is anonymous (like some folk tales), start the citation with the title of the short story. Your in-text citation would then use that title.
- No Date: If an online short story from a source like American Literature doesn’t have a publication date, use the access date. For MLA, you’d add “Accessed Day Month Year” at the end. For APA, you’d write (n.d.) for “no date.”
Why Does This Even Matter?
Learning how to cite a short story correctly feels like a lot of tiny rules. But it’s not just about avoiding plagiarism. It’s about showing your reader exactly where you found your evidence, which makes your essay stronger. It’s an act of scholarly generosity, building a map for the next person who reads your article or essay. It shows you respect the conversation you’re joining. And yes, it also gets you a better grade.
This process can be a fiddly bit of business. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the rules for short story citations, you can use a citation generator to help you build the citation. But it’s always good to know why the citation is built that way, so you can spot any errors the tool might make. For a complete overview of all citation types, from a short story to a full book, check out this guide on mastering citations.
FAQ: How to Cite a Short Story
How do I write a short story title in my essay? (This is not about the works cited!)
In the body of your essay, you always put the title of a short story in quotation marks. For example: My essay analyzes “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe. The title of the book or anthology it came from would be in italics, like Best American Short Stories.
What’s the most common mistake when citing short stories?
The biggest mistake is citing only the anthology or editor and forgetting to cite the author of the short story. Your in-text citation and Works Cited entry must begin with the short story author’s last name (e.g., Poe), not the editor’s last name (e.g., DiYanni).
What is the MLA short story citation format for a Works Cited page?
The standard MLA short story citation for a short story in an anthology is: Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of the Short Story.” Title of the Anthology, edited by Editor’s First Name Last Name, Publisher, Year, pp. ##-##. This is the citation example you’ll use for most citations of a short story in an English essay.
How does the in-text citation for a short story work?
The in-text citation (or text citation) is a brief parenthetical note. For MLA, it’s (Author Page Number), like (Poe 88). For APA, it’s (Author, Year, p. Page Number), like (Poe, 1843, p. 88). This in-text citation points the reader to the full citation in your Works Cited or Reference List.
What if I’m citing a short story from a publisher like Random House that is just a collection by the same author?
This is a simpler book citation. You don’t have an editor to worry about. The MLA format would be: Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of the Short Story.” Title of the Collection, Random House, Year, pp. ##-##. The in-text citation is still just (Author Page Number).