LibGuides: Writer's Workshop Research Guide: Welcome

About This Guide

To that creative spark, add research! Research adds realism and truth to fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, screenwriting, and playwriting. In this guide, you'll find instructions to take your library research skills to the next level, as well as links to works that can inspire and enrich your creative activities.

If you are looking for specific information, your librarian Tammi Owens is here to help! Please make an appointment for a research consultation by using the "Schedule an Appointment" button below.

Best Bets

JSTOR
The library's JSTOR account includes access to all fifteen Arts & Sciences Collections and the several topical collections such as Ireland, Life Sciences, Security Studies, and Sustainability. These encompass an archive of over 2,300 journals in classical studies, ecology, economics, history, language and literature, mathematics, music, the history and study of art and architecture, cultural studies, film, folklore, performing arts, philosophy, political science, sociology, and religion.
Project MUSE
Full-text journals in the arts, humanities, history and social sciences
JSTOR Images
JSTOR Images replaces the ARTstor platform, but it remains a digital image repository that assembles images and related textual information from across many time periods and cultures in support of a wide range of educational and scholarly activities.
Gale: Literary Sources
Brings together several Gale literary databases into one search platform including Dictionary of Literary Biography, Literature Criticism Online, and Something About the Author.
Gale: Primary Sources
Gale Primary Sources brings the thoughts, words, and actions of past centuries into the present for a comprehensive research experience. The platform has been thoughtfully designed to help students and researchers examine literary, political, and social culture of the last 500 years. The University of Nebraska's account includes access to 40 primary source databases.
National Theatre Collection
Drawing on 10 years of National Theatre Live broadcasts as well as recordings never previously seen outside of the National Theatre’s archive, the video content includes 30 video performances. As a supplement to the filmed productions, exclusive digitized archival materials such as prompt scripts, costume designs, and more are available to provide behind-the-scenes background and contextual information.
TLS historical archive, 1902-2019
The Times Literary Supplement (TLS) provides coverage of literature, theatre, opera, exhibitions and film.

Consider This

Researching Creative Writing by Jen Webb
ISBN: 9781907076350

Publication Date: 2015-07-01

Creative writers who are also students or academics face two apparently contradictory imperatives: the need to answer important research questions, and the need to produce works of the imagination. The two activities depend on very different thinking processes, use language differently, and address different audiences. Yet they are not irreconcilably different: writers, whether academic or creative, tend to investigate the world around us, explore what we as human beings know and how we know it, test facts and common sense, and try to establish what really matters. And whether the result is a scholarly essay, a poem, a novel or a playscript, the writer faces similar challenges: how to convey the ideas, information, logical and emotional aspects that were a part of the work. Writer-researchers need to attend to the formulation of research questions, the selection of methodology and research methods, such practical aspects of writing and research as dealing with other people, and how the outputs are managed, analysed, interpreted and disseminated. When these issues are managed appropriately, research practices can invigorate writing, creative practices can invigorate research, and creative writing can operate as a mode of knowledge generation, a way of exploring problems and answering questions that matter.