Jake Silverstein
Jake Silverstein is the editor in chief of Texas Monthly. He attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, and also received degrees from Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia, and the Michener Center for Writers, at the University of Texas at Austin. In the late 1990s, he worked as a reporter for the Big Bend Sentinel, a weekly newspaper in Marfa, Texas. In 2005 he became a Contributing Editor to Harper's Magazine. His first book, Nothing Happened and Then It Did: A Chronicle In Fact and Fiction, was published in 2010 by W.W. Norton, and his work has also appeared in the anthologies Best American Travel Writing 2003 and Submersion Journalism (2008). He joined the staff of Texas Monthly as a senior editor in 2006. In 2008 he was named the fourth editor of the magazine. During his editorship, the magazine has been nominated for eleven National Magazine Awards (the industry's equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize) and won two, for General Excellence and Feature Writing. He lives in Austin, Texas.
Features
The Artist and the City
The Truth About Texas: Water = Life
As last year’s historic drought reminded us, Texas has always lived life by the drop, just a few dry years away from a serious crisis. With our population expected to nearly double over the next fifty years, this situation is about to become more, not less, challenging. This month we look at the past, present, and future of water and drought in Texas and explore the solutions that give us hope.
Trials and Errors
Over the past two decades Texas has exonerated more than eighty wrongfully convicted prisoners. How does this happen? Can anything be done to stop it? We assembled a group of experts (a police chief, a state senator, a judge, a prosecutor, a district attorney, and an exoneree) to find out.
Night of the Living Ed
With public education facing an estimated $7 billion in cuts, the question on everyone’s mind is, Are Texas schools doomed? So we assembled a group of dinner guests (a superintendent, advocates on both sides, an education union rep, and the commissioner of the Texas Education Agency) to find out. Check, please?
The Immigration Dinner Party
We invited four lawmakers who disagree vehemently on the subject and a couple of experts to keep things friendly. Pull up a chair for a round of table talk you won’t soon forget.
The Gentleman From Texas
Only a few years after arriving in Washington, John Cornyn has become the capital’s most powerful Texan. Can he lead the Republicans back to power in the Senate?
Boy’s Life—Rick Perry
Before Rick Perry was fighting for the governorship of the second-largest state in the country, he was just a kid from Paint Creek.
The Bucket List
Driving the River Road, in far West Texas; having a drink at the Mansion on Turtle Creek, in Dallas; fishing for bass in Caddo Lake; eating a chicken-fried steak in Strawn; searching for a lightning whelk along the coast; and 58 other things that all Texans must do before they die.
People We’ll Miss—2009
A fond look back at 22 Texans who died in 2009, from Farrah Fawcett and Walter Cronkite to Brandon Lara and Joe Bowman.
The 50 Greatest Hamburgers In Texas
On our first-ever quest for the state’s best burgers, we covered more than 12,000 miles, ate at more than 250 restaurants, and gained, collectively, more than 40 pounds. Our dauntless determination (and fearless fat intake) was rewarded with a list of 50 transcendent burgers—and you’ll never guess which one ended up on top. Check out our Best Burger section.
The 40 Best Small-Town Cafes
Our exhaustive, exhausting, strictly scientific (and lamentably fattening) survey of the finest home cooking around, from Maxine’s on Main, in Bastrop, to El Paraiso, in Zapata.
BBQ08
Eighteen hungry reviewers. 14,773 miles driven/flown. 341 joints visited. Countless bites of brisket, sausage, chicken, pork, white bread, potato salad, and slaw—and vats of sauce—ingested. There are only fifty slots on our quinquennial list of the best places to eat barbecue in Texas. Only five of those got high honors. And only one (you’ll never guess which one in a million years) is the best of the best.
Spurs of the Moment
These practical accessories of the cowboy lifestyle are some of the world’s most-sought-after Western collectibles—and every pair has a story.
Columns | Miscellany
Generation Next
Welcome to the new Texas Monthly.
Pioneer Up
The roots of Rick Perry’s frontier style.
Tomorrow Never Dies
The perils of prediction.
Reporter
Green Is Good, Green Is Right
The founder of Whole Foods Market on conscious capitalism and eating healthy.
You Can’t Stop Renu Khator
The only female university chancellor in Texas (and president of the University of Houston) on her quest for Tier One status.
The Cold Eye of Larry McMurtry
Catching up with our leading unsentimentalist.
Ted Cruz’s Excellent Adventure
Will a tea party darling be the state’s first Hispanic senator?
Greg Abbott’s War
The state attorney general on Obamacare, secession, and challenges to Texas sovereignty.
Bill Applegate
Trapper.
Writing a Poem
A. Van Jordan on writing a poem.
Sterry Butcher
Stories from the 9 to 5
Web Exclusives
Why We Chose Rick Perry as Our 2012 Bum Steer of the Year
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