Summers worked in a variety of educational settings. From 1937 to 1944, he taught as an English teacher at Holmes High School in Covington, Kentucky. From 1944 to 1949, Summers worked at Georgetown College. And from 1949 to 1959, he served as Professor of English at the University of Kentucky. Summers spent the majority of his academic career at Ohio University where he worked from 1959 until his retirement.
"Mexico Picnic, October 31," Saturday Review, 40 (12 January 1957): 54.
"Lexington, Kentucky," American Weave, 100 (Spring 1961): 4–6.
"Seven Occasions for Song," Hudson Review, 15 (Spring 1962): 86–87.
"Title: To Be Supplied," Western Humanities Review, 17 (Winter 1963): 64.
"Waiting Bench with Figure," Midwest Quarterly, 7 (Autumn 1964): 96.
"The Gift," New Mexico Quarterly, 25 (Summer 1965): 137.
"Snapshots of the Four Grandchildren," Atlantic, 217 (May 1966): 113.
"Mercy," English Record, 19 (February 1969): 28.
"Grace Before Calling the Nursing Home and the Jail," Southern Poetry Review, 16 (1977): 83.
Fiction
"Mister Joseph Potts," Paris Review, 8 (Spring 1955): 107–121.
"The Prayer Meeting," Sewanee Review, 64 (Winter 1956): 110–122.
"Cafe Nore," Epoch, 8 (Fall 1957): 153–166.
"If You Don't Go Out the Way You Came In," Colorado Quarterly, 9 (Summer 1960): 69–83.
"The Third Ocean," Hudson Review, 22 (Summer 1969): 232–252.
Nonfiction
"Rejections and Acceptances from Editors and Other Readers: Jesse Stuart's 'Dawn of a Remembered Spring' Remembered". Focus: Teaching English Language Arts. 3: 1–5. Spring 1977.