A short story citation is a reference that credits the writer of the story and also names the larger work that contains it, such as an anthology, a single-author collection, a magazine or a website. MLA 9, APA 7 and Chicago 17 arrange those pieces in a different order, and each style has its own in-text format. This guide gives you the template, a worked example and the matching in-text citation for every common case, so you can copy the pattern that fits your source and move on with your essay.
TLDR: The Core Idea
A short story citation always has two titles. The story title goes in quotation marks (MLA, Chicago) or plain sentence case (APA). The title of the book, magazine or website that contains it goes in italics. Credit the story author first, and add the editor of the anthology after the book title. Once you see that two-level pattern, the three styles are easy to tell apart.
Why Citing a Short Story Is Tricky
The hard part is the “container.” A short story is a small work that sits inside something larger. It might be one of thirty stories in a textbook anthology, one chapter-length piece in a collection by a single author, an issue of a magazine, or a page on a literature website. A reader who holds your citation should be able to walk to the right shelf, or the right link, and find the exact page.
Two names cause most of the confusion. The story author always comes first. The editor of the anthology comes later, after the book title, and never replaces the author. Citing only the anthology is the most common reason a teacher marks a short story reference wrong.
Whatever the style, a complete entry draws on the same set of facts. Gather these from the title page of the book or the header of the web page before you start:
- Story author: the writer, named exactly as the source prints it
- Story title: the title of the individual story, not the book
- Container title: the anthology, collection, magazine or website
- Editor or translator: if the book lists one
- Publisher and publication year: from the title page or copyright page
- Pages or URL: the full page range of the story, or the web address
The Big Three: MLA, APA, and Chicago
Your instructor will usually name the style. English and literature classes use MLA. Psychology, education and other social sciences use APA. History courses often use Chicago. Because a short story essay is nearly always written for a literature class, this guide spends the most time on MLA. If you need the full rules for each system, see the MLA style guide, the APA style guide and the Chicago style guide.
How to Cite a Short Story in MLA 9
MLA (Modern Language Association) builds every entry from core elements, and each “container” gets its own slot. That makes it a natural fit for short stories. You need a Works Cited entry at the end of the paper and a short parenthetical citation in the text.
Short Story in an Anthology: MLA Works Cited
This is the standard case when your story comes from a class textbook or a collection by many writers. List the story author first. Then give the story title, the anthology title, the editor, the publisher, the year and the page range of the whole story, not just the page you quoted.
Two editors are joined with “and” (edited by Ana Ruiz and Sam Lee). Three or more editors become the first name plus “et al.” If the anthology has no editor, skip the “edited by” element.
The general template 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 First Name Last Name, Publisher, Year, pp. ##–##.
A filled-in short story in an anthology citation looks like this:
Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Cask of Amontillado.” Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama, edited by Robert DiYanni, McGraw-Hill, 2007, pp. 87–92.
Stories from a collection by one author need no editor. The entry is the same, minus the “edited by” element. For the general book pattern, see this guide on how to cite books.
How to Cite a Short Story Online in MLA
For a story on a website, the website is the container. The format is: Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of the Short Story.” Website Name, Day Month Year, URL. Use the date the story was posted. MLA 9 drops the “https://” from the URL, and an access date is optional, though some instructors still ask for one.
Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of the Short Story.” Name of the Website, Day Month Year, URL.
Here is a filled-in example. When a site gives no posting date, leave the date out and finish with “Accessed” and the day you read it.
Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Tell-Tale Heart.” American Literature, americanliterature.com/author/edgar-allan-poe/short-story/the-tell-tale-heart. Accessed 13 Oct. 2026.
What if the story author and the website author are different people? The MLA has a short answer on its style site. For other web sources, see how to cite a website.
Short Story in a Magazine: MLA Works Cited
If the story first ran in a periodical, the magazine is the container. Add the date and the page range instead of a publisher.
Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery.” The New Yorker, 26 June 1948, pp. 25–28.
The MLA In-Text Citation for a Short Story
An MLA in-text citation goes in parentheses right after the quotation or paraphrase. It has the author’s last name and the page number, with no comma between them, as in (Smith 45). Use the author’s name exactly as the first word of the Works Cited entry spells it, so the reader can find the source in one glance.
In-text citation with the author in parentheses:
The narrator opens with a threat disguised as a grievance: “The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge” (Poe 87).
In-text citation when the sentence names the author:
Poe’s Montresor admits that his heart “grew sick” only because of the damp, never from pity (90).
If a website story has no page numbers, use the author’s last name alone: (Poe). If the story has no author, use a shortened title in quotation marks: (“Tell-Tale Heart”). The work you quote from, the anthology, is not named in the parentheses.
Writing Story Titles Inside Your Essay
In the body of your paper, a short story title takes quotation marks, for example “The Lottery.” The book that holds it takes italics, for example The Lottery and Other Stories. The same pattern holds in MLA, APA and Chicago text. If you write about poems as well, the same rule applies, and our guide to citing poems shows it in action.
How to Cite a Short Story in APA 7
APA (American Psychological Association) style puts the year right after the author. APA treats a story in an anthology like a chapter in an edited book, so the reference has a different shape from MLA. Notice the word “In,” the editor’s initials before the surname, and the page range in parentheses after the book title.
Short Story in an Anthology: APA Reference List
Give the year of the book you actually used. If the story first appeared years earlier, end the entry with “(Original work published year).” Story titles and book titles use sentence case, which means only the first word, the first word after a colon and proper nouns are capitalized. Only the book title is italic.
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. (Original work published Year)
A filled-in APA short story in an anthology reference:
Poe, E. A. (2007). The cask of Amontillado. In R. DiYanni (Ed.), Literature: Reading fiction, poetry, and drama (pp. 87–92). McGraw-Hill. (Original work published 1846)
A common mistake is to put the story title in quotation marks or in title case. In APA the story title is plain sentence case, and only the book title is in italics.
How to Cite a Short Story Online in APA
An online story follows the webpage pattern: author, date, story title in sentence case, website name in italics, then the URL. Use (n.d.) when there is no date, and add the original publication year at the end if the site shows it.
Poe, E. A. (n.d.). The tell-tale heart. American Literature. https://americanliterature.com/author/edgar-allan-poe/short-story/the-tell-tale-heart (Original work published 1843)
The APA In-Text Citation for a Short Story
APA in-text citations use the author’s last name and the year. For a direct quotation, add the page number with “p.” (or “pp.”). When a story was republished, APA joins both years with a slash: original year first, then the edition you read.
Parenthetical, with a direct quotation:
Montresor’s revenge is planned like a performance, and he admits that “the thousand injuries of Fortunato” had been building for years (Poe, 1846/2007, p. 87).
Narrative, with a paraphrase:
Poe (1846/2007) lets his narrator tell the whole story as a confession.
For an online story without page numbers, point to a paragraph instead, for example (Poe, n.d., para. 3). The APA Style site lists the full pattern for edited book chapters.
How to Cite a Short Story in Chicago Style
Chicago (and its student version, Turabian) offers two systems: notes-bibliography and author-date. Literature and history papers almost always use notes-bibliography. You place a superscript number in the text, give the full source in a footnote or endnote, and list the source again in a bibliography at the end.
Short Story in an Anthology: Chicago Note and Bibliography Entry
The first footnote is a full citation, with the editor shown as “ed.” and the publication details in parentheses. The bibliography entry reorders the same facts, uses periods instead of commas and gives the whole page range of the story.
Footnote:
1. Edgar Allan Poe, “The Cask of Amontillado,” in Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama, ed. Robert DiYanni (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007), 88.
Bibliography:
Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Cask of Amontillado.” In Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama, edited by Robert DiYanni, 87–92. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007.
For a story in a book by one author, drop the editor. A footnote reads: Shirley Jackson, “The Lottery,” in The Lottery and Other Stories (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1949), 291. The matching bibliography entry is: Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery.” In The Lottery and Other Stories, 291–302. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1949.
Short Story on a Website: Chicago
For an online story, name the website and add an access date when the page shows no publication date. Put the URL at the end.
Footnote: 2. Edgar Allan Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” American Literature, accessed October 13, 2026, https://americanliterature.com/author/edgar-allan-poe/short-story/the-tell-tale-heart.
Bibliography: Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Tell-Tale Heart.” American Literature. Accessed October 13, 2026. https://americanliterature.com/author/edgar-allan-poe/short-story/the-tell-tale-heart.
The Chicago In-Text Citation (The Note)
In notes-bibliography style, the in-text citation is a superscript number placed after the quotation or paraphrase, usually after the punctuation. The number points to a footnote with the full source on first use. Later notes for the same story can be shortened to the author, a short title and the page, for example: Poe, “Cask of Amontillado,” 90.
Montresor’s plan begins with a promise of wine: “I was so pleased to see him, that I thought I should never have done wringing his hand.”1
If your teacher asks for author-date instead, the in-text form looks like APA: (Poe 2007, 90). The Chicago Manual of Style citation guide shows both systems side by side.
Comparison: Short Story Citation Formats Side by Side
This table puts the three reference list formats for a short story in an anthology next to each other, followed by the in-text form for each style.
| Style | Reference list entry (anthology) | In-text form |
|---|---|---|
| MLA 9 | Author, First. “Title of Story.” Title of Anthology, edited by Editor, Publisher, Year, pp. ##–##. | (Author Page) |
| APA 7 | Author, F. I. (Year). Title of story. In E. I. Editor (Ed.), Title of anthology (pp. ##–##). Publisher. | (Author, Year, p. #) |
| Chicago 17 (N-B) | Author, First. “Title of Story.” In Title of Anthology, edited by Editor, ##–##. City: Publisher, Year. | Superscript note number |
The second table does the same for a story you read online.
| Style | Reference list entry (website) | In-text form |
|---|---|---|
| MLA 9 | Author, First. “Title of Story.” Website Name, Day Month Year, URL. | (Author) |
| APA 7 | Author, F. I. (Year, Month Day). Title of story. Website Name. URL | (Author, Year, para. #) |
| Chicago 17 (N-B) | Author, First. “Title of Story.” Website Name. Accessed Month Day, Year. URL. | Superscript note number |
What If My Situation Is Unusual?
Real sources do not always fit the template. These cases come up most often.
| Situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| Collection by one author | Skip the editor. In MLA the entry becomes Author. “Story Title.” Book Title, Publisher, Year, pp. ##–##. |
| Story in a magazine | The magazine is the container. Give the periodical title, the date and the page range. Add volume and issue only if your style requires them. |
| No author | Start the entry with the story title. In-text, use a shortened form of that title, in quotation marks for MLA. |
| No date | MLA: end with “Accessed Day Month Year.” APA: write (n.d.). Chicago: add an access date before the URL. |
| Story translated from another language | Add the translator after the title: “translated by Name” in MLA, “(Trans.)” in the APA container, “trans. Name” in a Chicago note. |
If your assignment covers other literary forms too, our guides on citing a play and citing an essay use the same container logic.
Why Getting It Right Matters
A correct citation does more than avoid a plagiarism flag, because it shows your reader exactly where the evidence came from and lets them check it for themselves. It also tells your instructor that you read the style guide with care, which is often worth part of the grade.
You can build a first draft with the citation generator. Still read the result. Generators often leave out the editor of an anthology, or put the story title in the wrong case for APA. For the Works Cited basics, the Purdue OWL has a page on books in MLA that you can compare against. For a full tour of every source type, see our overview of mastering citations.
FAQ: How to Cite a Short Story
How do I cite a short story in MLA?
List the story author first, then the title in quotation marks, then the book or website in italics. For an anthology the MLA entry is: Last, First. “Title of the Story.” Title of the Anthology, edited by First Last, Publisher, Year, pp. ##–##. The in-text form is the author’s last name and page, such as (Poe 90).
How do I cite a short story in APA?
Use the chapter-in-an-edited-book pattern: Last, F. I. (Year). Title of the story in sentence case. In F. I. Last (Ed.), Title of the book (pp. ##–##). Publisher. The in-text citation is (Last, Year, p. #).
How do I cite a short story from an anthology?
Cite the story, not the whole book. Start with the story author, give the story title, then the anthology title, the editor, the publisher, the year and the page range of the story. Never start with the editor’s name, and do not cite only the anthology.
How do I cite a short story online?
Treat the website as the container. In MLA 9 write: Last, First. “Story Title.” Website Name, Day Month Year, URL. In APA use the webpage pattern with the story title in sentence case. In Chicago add an access date when no posting date is shown.
Do I put a short story title in quotation marks or italics?
In the text of an essay, a short story title goes in quotation marks, for example “The Tell-Tale Heart.” The anthology, collection or magazine that holds it goes in italics. In an APA reference list the story title has no quotation marks and no italics.
What is the most common mistake when citing short stories?
Citing only the anthology or the editor and leaving out the story author. Your in-text citation and Works Cited entry must begin with the story author’s last name (Poe), not the editor’s (DiYanni).
What page numbers do I list for a short story in an anthology?
Give the page range of the whole story in the reference list entry, for example pp. 87–92. In the in-text citation, give only the page where your quotation appears.
How do I cite a story from a single-author collection?
Use the same pattern as a book and leave out the editor. The MLA form is: Last, First. “Story Title.” Collection Title, Publisher, Year, pp. ##–##. The in-text citation is still just the author and page.
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Terry is a Chicago-based writer and editor who creates practical, student-friendly guides on essay writing, research, and citation styles (APA, MLA, and Chicago). He’s spent 15+ years editing educational content and building clear examples that help readers apply rules without guessing. When he’s not revising drafts, he’s usually turning messy notes into clean outlines and hunting down the one detail everyone skips.