Kimberly Garza, Ph.D.

The Pearl Lewinn Endowed Fellowship in Creative Writing

Associate Professor, English

Kimberly Garza is a writer of fiction and nonfiction. Her stories and essays have been published in places like ​Texas Highways, Copper Nickel, Puerto del Sol, ​DIAGRAM, ​TriQuarterly, ​Creative Nonfiction,​ Huizache​, Cutbank​, and ​Bennington Review​, and her 2018 essay “The Queen Signal” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She serves as associate fiction editor for ​The Boiler​ and has worked at literary journals including ​Bat City Review​ and ​American Literary Review​. Her writing has been supported by scholarships from the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers Conference and the Michener Center for Writers.

Garza’s debut novel, ​The Last Karankawas, is set in Galveston, Texas, and follows a community of Mexican and Filipino American families just before the arrival of Hurricane Ike (Henry Holt & Company). It was selected as a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice in 2022.

Garza is a core faculty member of the UTSA Creative Writing Program. Her teaching and research interests include creative writing, contemporary fiction and nonfiction, Chicanx literature, ethnic and American literature, border literature, and place and space. 

At UTSA, she has chaired or been a member of several thesis and dissertation committees, and is the faculty advisor for the Sagebrush Review, the university’s student-run literature, art and photography journal. 

Garza earned her Ph.D. in English-Creative Writing, specializing in fiction and Mexican American literature, from the University of North Texas, and a B.A. in English and Spanish and an M.A. in English-Creative Writing from the University of Texas at Austin.