Katherine Anne Porter was born in Indian Creek, Texas on May 15, 1890. Her birth name is Callie Russell Porter. She lived in New York City, California, Louisiana, Mexico, Washington D.C., and Western Europe. At the young age of sixteen Porter married Henry Koontz in order to escape from her family. Koontz abused Porter and they divorced in 1915. A short time after their divorce, Porter was diagnosed with tuberculosis. At the hospital in which she was staying, a fellow patients husband let Porter begin her journalism career writing for the Fort Worth Critic. In 1920, Porter moved to Mexico to work at a magazine. Her experiences during this time were the basis for her first published story, " Maria Conception." In 1929 Porter created her fictional alter ego Miranda Gay. The first story in the series about Miranda Gay was called " The Fig Tree." She returned to New York and in 1930 she published "Flowering Judas." That same year she returned to Mexico and worked on her novel called "Ship of Fools." Time passed, during this time she returned home to Texas and worked for the newspaper. In 1944 Porter published " The Leaning Tower and Other Stories." Porter published many other works during her lifetime before she died in 1980. The short stories she wrote include: Flowering Judas and Other stories, Maria Conception, Virgin Violeta, The Martyr, Magic, Rope, He, Theft, That Tree, The Jilting of Granny Wetherall, Flowering Judas, The Cracked-Looking-Glass, Hacienda, The Leaning Tower and Other Stories, The Old Order, The Source, The Journey, The Witness, The Circus, The Last Leaf, The Fig Tree, The Grave, The Downward Path to Wisdom, A Day's Work, Holiday, and The Leaning Tower. Her short novels include: Pale Horse, Pale Rider, Old Mortality and Noon Wine. Porter's only novel was Ship of Fools, which she wrote in 1962. Her essays include: Days Before and Never-Ending Wrong.
Katherine Porter had a unique style of writing, which was not very popular during her time.