Porter, Katherine Anne Maria Veronica Callista Russell (1890-1980)

US writer. She published three volumes of short stories Flowing Judas (1930), Pale Horse, Pale Rider (1939), and The Leaning Tower (1944); a collection of essays, The Days Before (1952); and the allegorical novel Ship of Fools (1962; filmed 1965). Her Collected Short Stories (1965) won a Pulitzer Prize.

Born in Indian Creek, Texas, Porter began her writing career after high school, working on newspapers and as a freelance, and lived in Mexico and then in Europe. Her short stories are notable for a depth and complexity usually found only in novels. Her correspondence is collected in Letters of Katherine Anne Porter 1990.