Katherine Anne Porter
(1890–1980)

Katherine Anne Porter did not produce a great number of literary works during her long life. Yet, the works she did produce were skillfully crafted, tightly structured, and written in a clear, elegant style.

Born in Indian Creek, Texas, Porter was raised in poverty. After becoming a journalist, she lived for several years in Mexico. There she developed an interest in writing fiction, and in 1922 she published her first story, "Maria Conception," in Century, a highly regarded literary magazine. Eight years later she published her first book, Flowering Judas (1930). The book, a collection of six short stories, was praised by critics and earned Porter widespread recognition. Flowering Judas and Other Stories, an expanded edition containing ten stories, appeared in 1935 an was followed by several other major works, including Noon Wine (1937), Pale Horse, Pale Rider (1939), No Safe Harbor (1941), The Leaning Tower and Other Stories (1944), and Ship of Fools (1962)–Porter's only novel. In 1966, she received the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for her Collected Stories (1965).

Throughout her work, Porter often explored the sense of uncertainty and disjointedness that resulted from changes in society. In many of her stories, she portrayed families that were drifting apart and losing an awareness of their connection with the past–as the traditional sense of the family as a community disappeared with the coming of the modern age.

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