Learning How to Cite a Short Story

Many students know how to use the correct MLA (Modern Language Association) citation for novels but they don't know what to do when it comes to citing a short story in an anthology. In high school, students will encounter short stories in their textbooks. But you can also find short stories in magazines and books. Citing the short stories is basically the same though. For this article, I will walk you through citing a short story in a book called "The Best American Short Stories of 2002."
Keep an eye on the punctuation usage when citing short stories or any other type of citation.

Consider using an online citation generator.

If there is an editor for the collection (or anthology), add their name after the name of the collection and before the publisher information.

Don't use APA (American Psychological Association) style citation for citing short stories. MLA should be used.

List the author of the short story first. In this book we find a short story entitled "Nobody's Business," by Jhumpa Lahiri. Write the author's name with last name first. Lahiri, Jumpha. Put a period after her name.
Write down the title of the short story next. The title should be in quotation marks and be followed by a period. "Nobody's Business."

Turn to the cover page of the collection of short stories. This will be about the first or second page of the book. Write down the name of the collection. In this example the title of the collection is The Best American Short Stories 2002. You should underline this title or type it in italics.

Look at the bottom of the cover page and locate the name of the publisher and where the publisher is located. You also need to locate the copyright date, which will either be on the cover page or the page right after it. This information will be added next to your short story citation. For this book the information will look like this: Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002. Notice the punctuation!

Finish up citing the short story by checking your punctuation. Your final short story citation should now look like this: Lahiri, Jumpha. "Nobody's Business." The Best American Short Stories 2002. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002.