Creative Writing: Home
(image: Dave Morrison Photography, Creative Commons license)
As a creative writing student, you will need to use a variety of resources for a variety of reasons. You might want to find critical opinion on a piece of writing or author, you may want to research historical context for your own characterisation and you may need inspiration! The Library has many resources you can use.
Creative Writing Books
A selection of our books on creative writing and authorship.
Writing Bestsellers by ISBN: 9781108663724Publication Date: 2021-09-23
Key Resources
- University of St Andrews LibrarySearch the University's Collections. Find print and electronic books, journal articles, rare books, archives, photographs, theses and research publications and museum items.
- British Library CatalogueSearch the main catalogue for books, journals, newspapers, printed maps, electronic resources and sound archive items held at the British Library
- WorldcatSearch over 2 billion records held at more than 10,000 libraries worldwide.
Below is a list of databases which provide access to literary texts. Additional resources for primary texts are listed on the Specialist Databases tab.
- Drama Online This link opens in a new windowaccess to the core collection of over 1700 playtexts from Methuen Drama, Arden Shakespeare, and Faber and Faber. Also includes access to over 650 Nick Hern Modern Plays.
- Early English Books Online (EEBO) via Proquest This link opens in a new windowdigital facsimiles of nearly every book published in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and other works in English printed from 1473-1700.
- Historical Texts This link opens in a new windowformerly known as Jisc Historic books, full-text; contains the full text or page images of over 350,000 books published in Britain from 1475 to 1900. The service draws together content from two of the best-known and long established early book collections: Early English Books Online (EEBO) and Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) plus 65,000 19th century books from the British Library collection
- ProQuest One Literature This link opens in a new windowFull text of poetry, drama and prose – includes more modern fiction (works published from 1477 to present)
Below is a list of the key databases for literature. These provide more functionality than Library search and are particularly useful if you want to look at a range of materials on a specific author or look at a literary period or literary movement.
- Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL) This link opens in a new windowan index of secondary sources - books, articles, critical editions of literary works, book reviews, essay collections and doctoral dissertations published worldwide. Part of Proquest One Literature
1920 - present - ProQuest One Literature This link opens in a new windowMore than 350,000 searchable works of English and American poetry, drama and prose. Includes more than 380 full-text journals as well as other key reference and criticism resources. This database allows you to search Literature Online and ABELL at the same time
- MLA International Bibliography (via EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new windowindex to papers, proceedings, dissertations, and bibliographies on literature, language, linguistics and folklore, from 1926 onward. Produced by the Modern Language Association of America
Library Resources for Inspiration!
(Image: Library of Congress - http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/99402449/ - No known restrictions on publication.)
- Defining Gender 1450-1910 This link opens in a new windowDefining Gender provides access to a vast body of original British source material that will enrich the teaching and research experience of those studying history, literature, sociology and education from a gendered perspective.
- Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new windowAllows cross-searching of multiple resources including historical newspaper archives and digital primary source databases.
A Full list of resources which can be accessed via Gale Primary Sources is available
- Gender: Identity and Social Change This link opens in a new windowprimary sources documenting the changing representations and lived experiences of gender roles and relations from the nineteenth century to the present.
- The John Johnson Collection: an archive of printed ephemera This link opens in a new windowfully searchable colour images of 65,000 items from the Bodleian Library's John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera, offering unique insights into the changing nature of everyday life in the 18th, 19th and early 20th Centuries
- The Listener Historical Archive This link opens in a new windowdeveloped as the medium for reproducing broadcasts, The Listener (1929-1991) was the weekly newspaper published by the BBC. Provides an insight into the intellectual and cultural history of the twentieth century, and also to the golden years of radio and television.
- Mass Observation Online This link opens in a new windowThe Mass Observation Archive is a huge database of diaries, directives, surveys, photographs and reports collected in the UK from 1937-1992
- Medieval Family Life This link opens in a new windowunique resource containing collected letters from five families from 15th Century England. Manuscript images are in full colour with accompanying searchable transcriptions
- Migration to New Worlds This link opens in a new windowUsing primary source materials, Migration to the New Worlds provides insight into the stories of migrants from the UK, Ireland, Europe and Asia to the New World and Australasia, in the 19th and early 20th centuries. A database of letters, diaries, government papers, pamplets, shipping papers, photographs, hand-drawn maps etc from a range of archival sources.
- Proquest databasesAllows cross-searching of multiple databases including historical periodical and newspaper archives, early modern books and Proquest One Literature
A full list of resources which can be cross-searched on the Proquest platform is available..
- The Victorian Webimages and documents, including entire books, as nodes in a network of complex connections. The main focus is Great Britain in the age of Victoria (1837-1901)
- Vogue Archive This link opens in a new windowcomplete searchable archive of American Vogue, from the first issue in 1892 to the current issue
- Newspaper GuideUse this guide to find out more about our access to newspaper archives and current titles. Useful for discovering how real world events have been reported.
Subject Guide
Hilda McNae
Contact:
Senior Librarian (Academic Liaison)
University of St Andrews Library, KY16 9TR
Tel: 01334 462298
University of St Andrews Library, KY16 9TR
Tel: 01334 462298