Anna Porter
{{Short description|Canadian publisher and novelist}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox person
|name = Anna Porter
|image =
|alt =
|caption =
|birth_date =
|birth_name = Anna Maria Szigethy
|birth_place = Budapest, Hungary
|death_date =
|death_place =
|other_names =
|known_for =
|occupation = Publisher, writer
|alma_mater = University of Canterbury
|spouse = Julian Porter
|nationality =
}}
Anna Maria Porter{{cite web|url=http://www.douglas-mcintyre.com/author/542|title=Anna Porter|publisher=|accessdate=16 December 2015}} {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|OC|OOnt}} is a Canadian publisher and novelist.
Life and career
Born Anna Szigethy in Budapest, Hungary, she emigrated to New Zealand in 1956. She received a bachelor's degree and Master of Arts degree from the University of Canterbury. She started at McClelland & Stewart in 1969 and became president and publisher of Seal Books. In 1979, she founded Key Porter Books{{Cite news|last=CBC Arts|date=7 Jan 2011|title=Key Porter Books ceases operations|work=CBC|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/key-porter-books-ceases-operations-1.989153}} and in 1986 she purchased a majority stake in Doubleday Canada.{{citation needed|date=April 2016}}
In 2004, she was appointed to the Board of Governors of York University.
In 1991, she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada for being "instrumental in bringing Canadian titles to the attention of the international market place".{{OCC|2973}} In 2003, she was awarded the Order of Ontario. She has been awarded honorary degrees from Ryerson University, St. Mary's University, and the Law Society of Upper Canada.
In 2004, Porter sold her interest in Key Porter Books to focus on writing. She has published three mystery novels and three books on Middle European history. Her most recent book is The Ghosts of Europe, published in September, 2010.MacSkimming, Roy. "Anna Porter's latest phase", Quill & Quire, 76.8 (2010): 13.
She is married to the lawyer Julian Porter.{{citation needed|date=April 2016}}
Selected works
- Farewell to the 70's: a Canadian salute to a confusing decade (1979)
- Hidden Agenda (1985)
- Mortal Sins (1987)
- The Bookfair Murders (1997)
- The Storyteller: memory, secrets, magic and lies (2000)
- Kasztner's Train: the true story of an unknown hero of the Holocaust (2007)
- The Ghosts of Europe: journeys through central Europe's troubled past and uncertain future (2010)
- Buying a Better World: George Soros and billionaire philanthropy (2015, Dundurn Press)
- The Appraisal (2017)
- In Other Words: How I Fell in Love with Canada One Book at a Time (2018)
Awards and honours
- 2007: Nereus Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize, winner, Kasztner's Train
- 2008: Charles Taylor Prize, shortlist, Kasztner's Train
- 2010: Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing, winner, The Ghosts of Europe
References
Sources
- {{cite web|url=http://www.collectionscanada.ca/women/002026-289-e.html|title=Women in the Canadian book trade|accessdate=March 3, 2006|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060227190157/http://www.collectionscanada.ca/women/002026-289-e.html|archivedate=2006-02-27|url-status=dead}}
- {{cite web|url=http://www.yorku.ca/secretariat/board/biography/porter.htm|title=York University profile|accessdate=March 3, 2006}}
- {{cite web|url=http://www.womenspost.ca/Anna_Porter_Jailed_at_the_age_of_six.asp|title=Women's Post Profile|accessdate=October 19, 2007}} {{Dead link|date=October 2010|bot=H3llBot}}
External links
- [http://www.annaporter.ca/ Anna Porter's official website]
- Canadians of Hungarian ancestry
- {{LCAuth|n80021321|Anna Porter|10|ue}}
- {{cite web|title=Anna Porter fonds - Search Research Collections|url=http://archives.mcmaster.ca/index.php/anna-porter-fonds|website=McMaster University Library|publisher=William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections|accessdate=7 July 2019}}
{{Wikisource author|wislink=Anna Maria Porter|title=Anna Maria Porter}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Porter, Anna}}
Category:20th-century Canadian novelists
Category:20th-century Canadian women writers
Category:21st-century Canadian novelists
Category:21st-century Canadian women writers
Category:Canadian book publishers (people)
Category:Canadian women novelists
Category:Hungarian emigrants to New Zealand
Category:Members of the Order of Ontario
Category:New Zealand emigrants to Canada
Category:Officers of the Order of Canada
Category:University of Canterbury alumni