Katherine Durham Oldmixon Garza is the author of Life Afterlife / A Book of the Hours, from 3: A Taos Press, and the chapbook Water Signs (No. 67 in the New Women’s Voices series, Finishing Line Press, 2009).  Her poems and photographs also appear in online and print magazines and anthologies. The director of the Poetry at Round Top Festival, held annually in the rolling hills between Austin, San Antonio, and Houston, Katherine has served as a senior poetry editor for Tupelo Quarterly, past president of Austin Poetry Society and as a regular moderator for Texas Book Festival.  She has guest-edited special issues of Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review ,  Qarrtsiluni and the Ilanot Review.

A poet and scholar, Katherine holds a Ph.D. in English (Medieval Literature) from UT-Austin, M.F.A. in Creative Writing from University of New Orleans, and M.A. and B.A. degrees in English from University of Houston.  At historic Huston-Tillotson University, she is professor emerita, formerly professor and chair of English. She has also taught for the UNO-low residency MFA program and served on thesis and dissertation committees for graduate students at St. Edward’s, Texas State, Concordia, University of New Orleans and elsewhere.   

Katherine is an avid ecological gardener and visual artist working in watercolor, colored pencils, mosaic, photography, and mixed media. She studied curanderismo in workshops led by medicine woman Marika Alvarado, especially focusing on healing plants, and she is actively engaged in expanding her knowledge to deepen her practice of ecological horticulture and design. Her naturalistic garden is designed to support pollinators, birds, and other native wildlife.

Most importantly, Katherine is the adoring mother of four amazing persons: Seth, Mary, Jonathon, and Leah, and the doting grandmother to six wondrous persons: Dylan, Nikki, Colin, Bennett, Adelyn, and Lauren and great-grandmother to delightful Elijah. She shares her garden and home, La casa de la luna nueva, with her precious and precocious dog person, Tamale.

Katherine and her late husband, musician and videographer Arturo L. Garza, collaborated on many artistic and cultural projects.  She continues his work and legacy, living una para dos. In 2021, she fulfilled one of Arturo’s dreams, collaborating on the song “Amor Encendido,” with composer Robert Skiles, and producing a recording of it with Isaac Peña. Arranged and produced by Peña, the song is sung by Tish Hinojosa. Katherine also maintains the Paper Cutouts to Steel website, where one can view Arturo’s documentary Paper Cutouts to Steel: The Art of Carmen Lomas Garza.