Katherine Howe

Katherine Howe
Born	1977 (age 46–47) Houston,Texas,U.S.
Occupation	Novelist
Education	Columbia University(BA) Boston University(MA)
Genre	Historical fiction
Spouse	Louis Hyman
Website
www.katherinehowe.com

Katherine Howe(born 1977) is an American novelist who lives in New England and New York City.She specializes in historical novels which she uses to query ideas about "the contingent nature of reality and belief."Herdebut novelwas the New York Times BestsellerThe Physick Book of Deliverance Dane(2009), related to theSalem witch trials.Its success led to her being a guest on several TV news shows, as well as "Salem: Unmasking The Devil" on theNational Geographic Channel.

She has also writtenThe House of Velvet and Glass,Conversion,The Appearance of Annie Van Sinderen(2015),andA True Account(2023).Her fiction has been translated into more than 20 languages.

Biography

Howe was born and raised inHouston, Texas.Her mother is a longtime curator at theMuseum of Fine Arts, Houston.She graduated from theKinkaid Schooland earned her undergraduate degree in art history and philosophy atColumbia University.She began writing fiction while doing graduate work; she earned an MA in American and New England Studies atBoston University.She teaches atCornell University.

In 2016 she was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, where she was finishing a novel set "among the corsairs of the Gulf Coast that imagines Texas’s role within the broader Caribbean diaspora. It is tentatively titled The Galvez Grand. It will build on archival research about patterns of trade and settlement onGalveston Islandin the 1820s while engaging with the legacy ofmagical realistfiction in the American Southwest and in Mexico. "

Howe and her husband, the economic historianLouis Hyman(author ofDebtor Nation), are core members of a group informally known as the "Springfield Street Table." This batch of Cambridge-area writers and scholars gather to play poker, while trading barbs and debating culture and ideas.The bestselling novelistMatthew Pearl,who also started writing fiction as a graduate student in English studies, is a core member of this group. He is sometimes credited with helping to launch Howe's literary career.

Howe's ancestors settled inEssex County, Massachusettsin the 1620s. She is related to bothElizabeth ProctorandElizabeth Howe,women convicted of being witches during theSalem witch trials.Proctor was spared because she was pregnant at the time of her scheduled execution, and later among prisoners released. Howe was executed.Another of her relatives was Edward Howe, a ship captain, and his wife Hannah Masury, who took over his ship after his death on a Pacific excursion in the 19th century. Hannah Masury is the great aunt of Katherine Howe and her story became the inspiration for Howe's 2023 novelA True Account,which tells the story of a woman dressing up as a cabin boy on a pirate ship, which she eventually takes command of.

Bibliography

Fiction

Year	Title	Pages	Notes
2009	The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane	384
2012	The House of Velvet and Glass	417
2014	Conversion	432
2015	The Appearance of Annie Van Sinderen	379
2019	The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs	352
2023	A True Account	288

Non-fiction

Year	Title	Pages	Notes
2014	The Penguin Book of Witches	320	Editor
2021	Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty	368	with Anderson Cooper