These online databases are excellent resources for finding biographical information about your author and criticism of  short stories, as well as plays, novels, essays, poems etc.

For critical analysis articles about your chosen work you want to search by the title (Of Mice and Men for example). Often you will want to include the name of the author in your search unless the title is very distinctive. Most of the critical articles will come from literary journals, a preferred source.

Biographical information is generally culled from reference books and occasionally from journal articles. For contemporary authors, a published interview with the author can be very useful. 

In some cases you will not be able to find literary criticism of a particular work. If your professor allows it, you can pursue an emotion, mood, or behavior that is evident in a character in your short story, drama, or poem. In this case you might want to search in the field of psychology or philosophy. For this course of action Academic Search Complete, or Psychological & Behavioral Sciences are  good choices.