Eudora Alice Welty was an award-winning American author who wrote short stories and novels about the American South. Her book The Optimist's Daughter won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. She also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and numerous other awards. Welty was the first living author to have her works published by the Library of America.

Born in Jackson, Mississippi, Welty lived much of her life in the city's Belhaven neighborhood, where her home has been preserved as a National Historic Landmark and is open to the public as a house museum. She was educated at the Mississippi State College for Women (now Mississippi University for Women), the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Columbia Business School.