The Circus in the Attic and Other Stories is the only volume of short fiction by poet and novelist Robert Penn Warren.

[2] The collection includes perhaps Warren's most outstanding work of short fiction, "Blackberry Winter" (1946), both in its critical acclaim and the author's own assessment.

[4] The two novellas ("The Circus in the Attic" and "Prime Leaf") were placed by Warren at the beginning and the end respectively, bracketing the short fiction cycle.

[13] Kirkus Reviews compares the stories favorably to Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio (1919) and to Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology (1915).

"[17] Shepherd adds that most of these early works are "surprisingly undistinguished" and attributes this to Warren's inexperience as a writer, and the fact that he often produced them for quick sale to the slicks.

"[25] Millichap adds that "the romance of southern history is the major unifying theme of the entire collection..."[26] The theme of initiation is especially evident in the collection, exemplified in "Blackberry Winter", "When the Light Goes Green", and "Christmas Gift" - and also in "A Christian Education", "Testament of Flood", and "Prime Leaf".