Newsletter of the
Katherine Anne Porter
Society


Volume 2; 1996

Inside...

KAP House

Porter Archives

Texas News

Society News

Bibliography

Mexican Contract

Other short articles


Other Newsletters

Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3
Volume 4.1
Volume 4.2
Volume 5.1
Volume 6
Volume 7
Volume 8

Volume 9
Volume 10
Volume 11
Volume 12

Return to home page

Southwest Texas State University Includes Porter Memorabilia in Southwest Writers Collection

The Center for the Study of the Southwest at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas, has established the Southwestern Writers Collection. In a large room on the top floor of the campus's new library, glass cases display memorabilia of writers from southwest Texas. Katherine Anne Porter is represented along with J. Frank Dobie, William Goyen, Larry McMurtry, and others. Porter artifacts include letters written by her, periodicals in which some of her short pieces first appeared, and some of her personal possessions, donated by her nephew Paul Porter.

Katherine Anne Porter Literary Festival part of Kyle's "Fair-on-the-Square"

In 1994 Yana and David Bland and the Kyle Eagle established an annual Katherine Anne Porter essay and story contest, the winners to be announced during Kyle's annual "Fair-on-the-Square" each autumn. Winners are selected in the categories of fiction and nonfiction and by elementary, secondary, and adult classifications. School children are especially encouraged to enter the contest. Judges are drawn from local libraries and schools.

Katherine Anne Porter's Statue in Sea World's "Texas Walk"

In 1986 Harcourt Brace through Sea World of Texas in San Antonio commissioned eighteen life-size statues by Texas sculptors of native Texans who had made significant contributions to society. In May 1988 Sea World opened the four-acre botanical garden in which the statues have been placed along winding paths. Katherine Anne Porter's statue, created by Lubbock sculptor Glenna Goodacre, stands with, among others, those of Sam Houston, Lyndon Johnson, Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Howard Hughes, and Scott Joplin. At the opening ceremony the artists and their subjects or representatives were honored as the statues were unveiled. Paul Porter, Katherine Anne Porter's nephew, represented his aunt. Although the garden no longer is called the "Texas Walk," the statues are a popular part of the Sea World garden.

Bed and Breakfast Features Katherine Anne Porter Room

About twenty-five miles southwest of Austin and east of Wimberley on the road to Kyle is the Inn Above Onion Creek. One of the six guest rooms is the Katherine Anne Porter Room, which is furnished in yellow and white, with a queen size sleigh bed, a bath with whirlpool tub, and a two-sided fireplace. The other rooms are also named for famous persons of the region, including Captain Fergus Kyle. Janie Orr, who with her husband owns the Inn, says that each room has been decorated to tell its own story about its namesake. The Inn Above Onion Creek is also close to Buda and San Marcos, towns significant in Katherine Anne Porter's early years.

Paul Porter Speaks at Kyle Library Event on Anniversary of Katherine Anne Porter's Birth

May 15, 1995, the Kyle Community Library and the Katherine Anne Porter Association celebrated "Women in Texas History." Paul Porter, Katherine Anne Porter's nephew, presented a talk titled "Katherine Anne Porter's Passion for Gardening," and Texas author and social worker Ruthe Winegarden spoke on "Texas Women and Their Literary Tradition." David and Yana Bland hosted a reception with refreshments afterward, and books by and about Katherine Anne Porter and an artist's rendering of Porter's childhood home were offered for sale.


© 1999 Katherine Anne Porter Society