Kathryn Smith Morrow is a charter member of the Penn State Science Fiction Society, founded in 1969—the year she attended her first convention, a Philcon. She earned a writing degree from Penn State, where Phil Klass/William Tenn was her academic advisor, and does occasional freelance journalism and editing. During her twenty-five-year career as a bookseller (where she recommended a lot of SFF) she served on the Paracon committee (1980–1984), and on the 1983 and 1986 Worldcon committees. She was also Professor Klass's teaching assistant for his Literature of Science Fiction course in 1981 and again in 1987.
She maintains an interest in the history of the SFF genre and community. A past contributor to The New York Review of Science Fiction, Kathy collaborated with husband Jim in creating online lesson plans for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings for the Houghton Mifflin website in 2004, and coedited with him The SFWA European Hall of Fame (Tor, 2007). She lives with Jim and their three dogs in Huntingdon, PA.