PERRLA/Guides/APA 7/Poem, story, or essay in an anthology

How to Cite a Poem, Story, or Essay in an Anthology in APA 7

An APA 7 reference for a poem, short story, or essay in an anthology starts with the author of the piece and the year of the anthology you read. Then comes the piece's title in sentence case (no italics, no quotation marks), the word In, the editors' names with (Ed.) or (Eds.), the anthology title in italics, the page range in parentheses, the publisher, the DOI if there is one, and (Original work published Year) if the piece appeared somewhere first. The in-text citation gives the piece's author and both years, original first: (Whitman, 1865/2002).

The format

Author, A. A. (Year of the anthology). Title of the poem, story, or essay. In E. E. Editor & F. F. Editor (Eds.), Title of the anthology (pp. x–y). Publisher. https://doi.org/xxxx (Original work published Year)

PERRLA APA Experts · Updated October 21, 2026
Checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition. Every example is formatted by PERRLA's reference engine.

First, the easy way: PERRLA

In PERRLA, choose Anthology, then An entry in an anthology. For the kind, pick An entry in an anthology, or An entry in a republished anthology if the whole collection is a reissue of an older anthology. Add the writer of the piece as the author and the anthology's editors as editors. Then fill in Entry Title, Anthology Title, Entry Page Numbers, the anthology's Publication Year, the publisher, and the DOI. If the piece was published before, type that year in Entry's Original Publication Year.

PERRLA puts (Original work published …) at the end of the reference and writes both years into every in-text citation, original first. It handles the sentence case, the italics, the (Eds.), and the pp. for you.

Reading a translation? Choose the kind An entry in a foreign language or translated anthology to add the translator. Want to give the full original source instead, like the journal a reprinted essay first ran in? Choose Book, then Chapter in edited book, then Republished chapter, originally from a journal (or originally from a book), and PERRLA builds APA's longer Reprinted from version. PERRLA's reference search can find many anthology pieces from a DOI, but it fills them in as an ordinary book chapter without the original year, so for a reprinted poem, story, or essay, build it under Anthology.

Not using PERRLA yet? Here is how to build the same reference by hand.

The parts of the reference

1. Author of the piece

Start with the person who wrote the poem, story, or essay, not the editors of the anthology: last name, comma, initials. Write the name the way your anthology prints it.

Whitman, W.

Names can differ from one printing to the next. The 1982 essay in our examples is signed Eric J. Cassel, while his later books spell it Cassell, so the reference for the essay uses Cassel. If a piece is anonymous or traditional, start the reference with its title instead.

2. Year of the anthology

Give the year of the anthology you read, from its copyright page, in parentheses. This is the date of the collection, not the date the poem or essay was written.

(2002).

E-book platforms sometimes show a later date than the book itself. A Life in Medicine appears online with a 2011 date, but its copyright page says 2002, and the copyright page wins.

3. Title of the piece

Write the title of the poem, story, or essay in sentence case, then a period. Don't italicize it and don't put it in quotation marks. Leave off notes the anthology adds to the title, like "from Leaves of Grass" or "from The Cancer Journals."

The wound dresser.

Breast cancer: Power vs. prosthesis.

4. In editors

Write In, then the editors' initials and last names (initials first here), then (Ed.) for one editor or (Eds.) for more, then a comma. Use an ampersand before the last editor.

In R. Coles & R. Testa (Eds.),

If an anthology has no editor, go straight from In to the anthology title.

5. Anthology title and pages

Write the anthology title in italics and sentence case. Right after it, in plain parentheses, give the pages the piece fills, with pp. and an en dash. A one-page poem takes p.

A life in medicine: A literary anthology (pp. 42–45).

An edition goes in the same parentheses, before the pages: (3rd ed., pp. 45–51). If the anthology is one volume of a set with its own title, the volume goes into the italic title: The essential Dewey: Vol. 1. Pragmatism, education, democracy.

6. Publisher

Give the anthology's publisher, followed by a period. APA 7 leaves out the city.

The New Press.

7. DOI or URL

If the piece or the anthology has a DOI, write it as a link after the publisher. Include it even if you read a print copy, since the DOI belongs to the work. With no DOI, a print anthology or one from a library database ends after the publisher.

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781595587800-012

8. Original publication date

If the piece was published before it went into the anthology, end with the year it first came out, in parentheses after the words Original work published. There's no period after it.

(Original work published 1865)

Find the year on the anthology's permissions or acknowledgments page, in the headnote before the piece, or in a reliable source about the author. Make sure it's the piece's first appearance, not the first edition of a bigger book. If the piece was written for this anthology, leave this part off.

Examples

A classic poem reprinted in an anthology

Walt Whitman's Civil War hospital poem, reprinted in a literary anthology for health care students and clinicians. It first appeared in Drum-Taps in 1865 under the title "The Dresser," according to the Walt Whitman Archive, so the original year is 1865 even though the anthology credits it to Leaves of Grass.

  • Parenthetical citation(Whitman, 1865/2002, p. 43)
  • Narrative citationWhitman (1865/2002, p. 43)

An essay excerpted from a book

Audre Lorde's essay on choosing not to wear a breast prosthesis after her mastectomy. The anthology reprints it from The Cancer Journals, first published by Spinsters, Ink in 1980.

  • Parenthetical citation(Lorde, 1980/2002, p. 176)
  • Narrative citationLorde (1980/2002, p. 176)

An essay that first ran in a journal

Eric J. Cassel's essay on suffering first appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1982, and the same anthology reprints it. The anthology form only needs the original year. Don't mix it up with his later book of the same title, published under the spelling Cassell.

  • Parenthetical citation(Cassel, 1982/2002)
  • Narrative citationCassel (1982/2002)

A classic essay in one volume of an edited reader

John Dewey's 1897 statement of his beliefs about teaching, a staple of education courses, in the first volume of a two-volume Dewey reader edited by Larry A. Hickman and Thomas M. Alexander. The volume number and its title go inside the italic anthology title.

  • Parenthetical citation(Dewey, 1897/1998, p. 230)
  • Narrative citationDewey (1897/1998, p. 230)

In-text citations

Cite the writer of the poem, story, or essay, not the anthology's editors. When the piece was published before, give both years: the original year, a slash, then the year of the anthology you read. Add the page from your anthology when you quote.

  • Parenthetical: (Whitman, 1865/2002)
  • Narrative: Cassel (1982/2002) separated suffering from physical pain.
  • A quote: (Lorde, 1980/2002, p. 176)
  • A piece written for the anthology: one year only, like any chapter: (Author, 2002)
  • No author: a short form of the title in quotation marks and title case: ("Title of the Poem," 2002)

When you name a poem, story, or essay in your sentence, put its title in quotation marks and title case: In "The Wound Dresser," Whitman describes changing a soldier's bandages. To quote a few lines of a poem in your sentence, mark each line break with a slash and a space on each side. A quote of 40 words or more goes in a block quotation instead. For a poem with no page numbers, like one you read online, point readers to the stanza or line instead of a page.

Common mistakes

  • (Coles & Testa, 2002, p. 176)(Lorde, 1980/2002, p. 176)The editors gathered the anthology. They didn't write Lorde's essay. Cite the writer of the piece you're quoting, and save the editors for the In part of the reference.
  • (Original work published 1855)(Original work published 1865)1855 is the first edition of Leaves of Grass, years before Whitman wrote this poem. The original date is the year the piece itself first appeared, so check the date of the poem, not the book it's credited to.
  • Lorde, A. (2002). "Breast cancer: Power vs. prosthesis."Lorde, A. (2002). Breast cancer: Power vs. prosthesis.In the reference, the title of a piece inside a book takes no quotation marks and no italics. Quotation marks belong only in your sentences and in a no-author citation.
  • (Dewey, 1998)(Dewey, 1897/1998)A reprinted piece needs both years in the text, so readers can see it's an 1897 essay and still find the 1998 book you read.
  • In R. Coles & R. Testa (Eds.), A life in medicine: A literary anthology, 42–45.In R. Coles & R. Testa (Eds.), A life in medicine: A literary anthology (pp. 42–45).The pages of a piece in a book go in parentheses with pp. right after the anthology title, before the publisher. The bare page range after a comma is the journal article format.
  • Cassell, E. J. (2002).Cassel, E. J. (2002).Use the name as the source you read prints it. The 1982 essay and its reprint spell it Cassel, even though his later books use Cassell.

Quick checklist

  • The writer of the piece in the author position, not the editors
  • The year of the anthology you read, from its copyright page
  • The piece's title in sentence case, with no italics or quotation marks
  • In, the editors' initials and last names, and (Ed.) or (Eds.)
  • The anthology title in italics, with (pp. x–y) after it
  • The publisher, then the DOI if there is one
  • (Original work published Year) at the end, and both years in the text

Questions students ask

How do I cite a poem in an anthology in APA 7?

Treat it like a chapter in an edited book. Give the poet, the year of the anthology, the poem's title, In and the editors with (Eds.), the anthology title in italics, the page range, and the publisher. If the poem was published earlier, add (Original work published Year) at the end and cite both years in the text: (Whitman, 1865/2002).

How do I find when a poem or story was first published?

Start with the anthology's permissions or acknowledgments page, which lists where each piece came from, and the headnote before the piece. A collection of the author's work or a reliable author archive can confirm it. If you can't find an original date, leave that part off and cite the anthology year alone.

What if the poem is in a book of poems by one poet?

APA 7 doesn't give separate references to chapters or pieces of a book one person wrote. Write a reference for the whole book, and name the poem in your sentence in quotation marks. The anthology format is for edited collections: work by different writers, or one writer's pieces gathered by an editor, like The Essential Dewey.

Do I cite the anthology's editor or the author?

The author of the piece, in the reference and in the text. The editors appear only after In. If you're writing about the whole anthology, like how the editors organized it, cite the anthology itself with the editors in the author position.

How do I cite a translated poem or story in an anthology?

Add the translator in parentheses after the piece's title, with Trans., the same way APA handles translated books. In PERRLA, choose the kind An entry in a foreign language or translated anthology, add the translator, and PERRLA puts the translator credit in the right place. A translated piece usually has an original date too, so the citation still shows both years.

Is a piece in an anthology the same as a chapter in an edited book?

The format is the same, and APA 7 covers both in the same section. The difference is that anthology pieces are often reprints, so they usually need the original publication year at the end and both years in the text.

How do I quote lines from a poem in APA?

Put the lines in quotation marks in your sentence, with a slash between lines, and give the page from your anthology: (Whitman, 1865/2002, p. 43). Quotes of 40 words or more go in a block quotation instead. For a poem online with no page numbers, give the stanza and line.

Rules checked against the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.), Sections 8.13, 8.15, 8.25–8.28, 9.41, and 10.3 (the work in an anthology example), and the APA Style website's edited book chapter, book, and quotations without page numbers pages. Example sources verified against each chapter's DOI record and the De Gruyter table of contents, the anthology's copyright page (2002, compiled by Robert Coles and Randy Testa), PubMed (Cassel, 1982, New England Journal of Medicine), the Walt Whitman Archive ("The Dresser" in Drum-Taps, 1865), and the Open Library record for The Essential Dewey (Indiana University Press, 1998).

PERRLA builds the anthology reference with the original year, and puts both years in every citation.

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