Chopin, Kate (1851–1904)

US novelist and short-story writer. Her novel The Awakening (1899), the story of a married New Orleans woman's awakening to her sexuality, caused a sensation of hostile criticism, which effectively ended her career. It is now regarded as a classic of feminist sensibility.

Following the death of her father, she was brought up by her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother in St Louis, Missouri, USA. An avid reader, Chopin first began to write to support her six children following the death of her husband and then her mother. She was the author of poignant tales of Creole and Cajun life in Bayou Folk (1894).