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Mimi Swartz

Mimi Swartz, author, with Sherron Watkins, of Power Failure, The Inside Story of the Collapse of Enron, is an executive editor of Texas Monthly. Previously, she was a staff writer at Talk, from April 1999 to April 2001, and a staff writer at The New Yorker from 1997 until she joined Talk. Prior to joining The New Yorker, she worked at Texas Monthly for thirteen years. In 1996, Swartz was a finalist for two National Magazine Awards and won in the public interest category for her story on managed care. She was also a National Magazine Award finalist for her November 2005 issue story on tort reform, entitled “Hurt? Injured? Need a Lawyer? Too Bad!” and won the 2006 John Bartlow Martin Award for Public Interest, Magazine Journalism for the same story.

Over the years, Swartz’ work has appeared in Vanity Fair, Esquire, Slate, National Geographic and the New York Times’ Op Ed page and Sunday magazine. It has also been collected in Best American Political Writing, 2006, and Best American Sportswriting, 2007. She has been a member of the Texas Institute of Letters since 1994.

Swartz grew up in San Antonio, Texas, and graduated from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. She now lives in Houston with her husband John Wilburn, and son, Sam.

Features

Child’s Play

Summer vacation is right around the corner, but that doesn’t mean you should panic. We’ve rounded up 68 of our favorite things to do with your toddlers, teens, and every kid in between. Dance the hokey pokey. Rope a horse. Eat way too many hot dogs. Zip down a waterslide. And yes, feed the animals. April 2008

The Gospel According to Matthew

Why does a rich Houston investment banker spend his days traveling the globe, preaching to the uninformed and indifferent that the world’s supply of crude oil is in steep decline and the end of life as we know it is very, very near? Maybe because it is. February 2008

The Day Oscar Wyatt Caved

In the right light, the ornery octogenarian oilman’s guilty plea can be seen as a victory: After all, he won’t spend the rest of his natural life in jail. But the fact is, he couldn’t beat the rap—and he knew it. November 2007

Eva Almighty

There are prettier women in Hollywood. There are more-talented actresses on TV and in the movies. So how to explain the charmed, celebrated existence that is la vida Longoria? September 2007

Splitsville!

True-life tales from the files of one of Houston’s top divorce lawyers. August 2007

Eva vs. Goliath

After James and Linda Rowe were killed in a grisly refinery explosion in Texas City in 2005, their wild-child daughter could have taken a modest settlement and started to rebuild her life in a small Louisiana border town. Instead, she chose to fight—and brought a multibillion-dollar oil company to its knees. July 2007

The Punch Line

Anna Nicole Smith died as she lived: as a bit of tabloid ephemera, sandwiched between a love-crazed astronaut and Britney Spears’s new do. And that’s exactly where she belonged. April 2007

Here Comes Trouble

Dan Patrick is causing nervous breakdowns of various size and duration—and he’s not even in the Texas Senate yet. January 2007

Girl Walks Into an Outlet Mall

But not just any. The Prime and Tanger outlets, in San Marcos, with Neiman’s Last Call and Saks Off Fifth and Polo Ralph Lauren and Zegna among their more than 225 stores, are the fourth most popular tourist attraction in Texas. Maximizing a trip to such a massive shopping mecca requires a carefully thought-out strategy. Fortunately, I have one. September 2006

Guilty Pleasure

Kenny, we hardly knew ye. Okay, maybe we knew you too well. The jury, at least, seems to have pegged you just right. You too, Skilling. July 2006

The Gangstas of Godwin Park

Whatever else you can say about it, the life and death of Bellaire High School junior Jonathan Finkelman is a tragic tale of drugs, money, race, and MySpace. June 2006

Heartbreak High

If the war is an unpleasant abstraction in the rest of the country, it’s omnipresent at Killeen Shoemaker, where many of the children of the enlisted men and women of Fort Hood are enrolled—and pray for peace every single day. March 2006

Midnight in the Garden of Memory

My San Antonio was an overgrown small town, socially stratified and inbred, controlled by a handful of old, wealthy families. December 2005

Hurt? Injured? Need a Lawyer? Too Bad!

What tort reform has done to Texans in need would be grounds for a lawsuit—if there still were any lawsuits. November 2005

The Mildcatters

The lessons of the eighties boom have been internalized by today’s energy entrepreneurs, who seem nothing like their risk-loving forebears. They’re happy playing it safe, which is why their preferred commodity is gas, not oil. July 2005

Till Death Do Us Part

The marriage of Baylor College of Medicine and Methodist Hospital should have been made in heaven—and until recently, it was. Their nasty breakup is a bell tolling for American medicine. March 2005

Happily Enron After!

The fairy tale is long over, but reality hasn’t necessarily set in. February 2005

The Good Wife

Is she a “saccharine phony”? A closet liberal? A foot soldier—or a rebel—in the culture wars? The truth about Laura Bush is that her ambiguity makes her a model first lady: a blank screen upon which the public can project its own ideas about womanhood. November 2004

Them's Fightin' Words!

All over the world, and all over this country, the Texas stereotype is mocked and maligned (so what else is new?). Does it matter, really, if everyone thinks we're fat, violent, prudish yahoos? July 2004

Cast Away

For Sharon Bush, membership in the world's most powerful family had its privileges. But as she discovered after her husband of 23 years—the brother of one president and the son of another—ended their marriage via e-mail, it can be revoked without warning. May 2004

"I Had a Great Future Behind Me"

So says my friend Jost Lunstroth, one of thousands of formerly successful Texans for whom unemployment is more than a statistic. February 2004

The Witness

For forty years Nellie Connally has been talking about that day, when she was in that car and saw that tragedy unfold. She's still talking—and now she's writing too. November 2003

The Traitor Next Door

His name was Wadih el-Hage. He had an American wife and American kids, a home in Arlington, a job at a tire store in Fort Worth, and a secret past that led straight to Osama bin Laden. April 2002

How Enron Blew It

The Houston-based energy giant put the pursuit of profits ahead of all other corporate goals, which fostered a climate of workaholism and paranoia. And that was only part of the problem. November 2001

Nice Guys Finish Second

Is Survivor’s Colby Donaldson for real? Over lunch, the last old-fashioned Texas man talks about why he threw the game and what he’ll do next. August 2001

Good-bye to All That

Austinites thought the high-tech boom wouldn't change them, but it turned their city into something that more closely resembled Houston or Dallas in the golden eighties. Now they're paying the price. June 2001

Architecture • Ted Flato and David Lake

Master builders. September 1997

Gossip • Liz Smith

She’s got a secret. September 1997

Sloane, Alone

Dallas’ Sloane Simpson was a society queen who enchanted New York, seduced Mexico City, and turned Acapulco into a jet-set getaway. But when she died last year at age eighty, she was almost completely forgotten. June 1997

Brenham’s Paradise Lost

An idyllic small town confronts a controversial rape case involving four high school boys and a thirteen-year-old girl and discovers that nothing is certain—except that its children can’t escape the big-city culture of teenage sex. February 1997

It Came From Outer Space

The inside story of how industrious NASA scientists discovered signs of life in a Martian rock and boosted the fortunes of the tabloids, Hollywood producers, and even the president. November 1996

Religion • Kirbyjon Caldwell

Practicing what he preaches. September 1996

Truckin’

On the road with Victor Morales, the schoolteacher turned U.S. Senate candidate who is out to prove he’s not running on empty. June 1996

The High Times of Gerry Goldstein

Texas’ top drug lawyer helps dope dealers and cocaine kingpins beat their raps—and he’s proud of it. April 1996

Congressman Clueless

Steve Stockman was supposed to have been a lethal weapon in the Republicans’ fight to unmake the Great Society. Instead the freshman legislator has been a loose cannon—an outsider in his own party. February 1996

The Public Hell of Bob Carreiro

A daughter’s gruesome murder became a grieving father’s dark crusade to find her killer and thrust him into an ever-widening spotlight as an advocate for victims of violent crime. January 1996

Silicone City

From invention to litigation, the breast implant has done more for Houston’s economy—and its psyche—than anything since oil. August 1995

Not What The Doctor Ordered

How an old-fashioned Texas physician fought the takeover of modern medicine by heartless insurance companies—and lost. March 1995

How to Marry A Millionaire

Anna Nicole Smith got her man: the full story on the big gal’s marriage to octogenarian oilman J. Howard Marshall. October 1994

The Fugitive

Stardom has caught up with Tommy Lee Jones—finally. But don’t expect him to act like he’s enjoying it. October 1993

The Price of Being Molly

Being the nation’s most famous interpreter of Texas politics sounds like fun. But for Molly Ivins, success has been no laughing matter. November 1992

River Oaks 77019

Two prominent families, one soapy feud. What could be better for a summer miniseries? July 1992

Judge Roy Scream vs. The Texas Cyclone

How to beat the heat, find the food, and master the coasters at Texas’ four big theme parks. June 1992

The Man Who Knows Everything

Clyde Wilson is more than a private investigator. He’s the historian of Houston’s dark side—and that makes him the most dangerous man in town. June 1992

Love and Hate at Texas A&M

A report from the front lines in the battle of the sexes—inside the Aggie corps. February 1992

Murder in the Melting Pot

Some Vietnamese immigrants live the American dream. But for the family of Vu Dinh Chung, the dream turned into a fatal nightmare. December 1991

Blood in the Streets

Blood in the Streets. Houstonians and homicide detectives struggle to cope with a deadly crime wave. November 1991

The Cheerleader Murder Plot

To understand Wanda Holloway’s dark and desperate story, you have to start with where she came from. May 1991

The Fab Flacks

The nouvelle stars of Houston society are none other than Becca Cason and Holly Moore, the founders of the hippest, most with-it PR machine in the city. June 1990

The Mythic Rise of Billy Don Moyers

A small-town boy’s journey from Texas to the cosmos. November 1989

Abortion Street

Sixteen years after Roe v. Wade, all the bitterness and horror of the abortion fight can be found at a single site in Dallas. April 1989

Texas Primer: The Rose Window

The secrets of love seen through a glass, clearly. February 1987

No Promises

I arrived in Houston at the height of the boom, and left just as the bust began. Along the way I learned what it means to grow up. January 1987

Texas Primer: The Sticker Bur

After encountering this small brown barb, the wise Texas child learns to pick and choose his fights with the landscape. January 1985

Texas Primer: The Collins Purse

In the sixties a small company in Medina produced a wooden box decorated with rhinestones. It became a Texas tradition. January 1984

Requiem for a Margarita

Tequila, tequila, everywhere, and not a drop in your margarita. February 1979

Columns | Miscellany

Reversal of Fortune

How Houston’s rich got to be the same as you and me—that is, boring. December 2007

The Year of Living Dangerously

Houston’s Katrina hangover. October 2006

Lynn Wyatt

I had no clue about the amount of magic Texas held. Texas had a persona all its own, and I was proud to be a little smidgen part of it. December 2005

Kirbyjon Caldwell

One evening Ike and Tina came over for dinner to my mom and dad’s house. Tina kissed me on the forehead before I went to bed. December 2005

Going Public

An exit interview with Hockaday’s headmistress. February 2005

World Crass

Will Houston's next mayor be White? October 2003

The Perfect Storm

Enron, rest in pieces. January 2002

Oscar Wyatt

The oil boom is long over, but he and other wildcatters are still thriving. September 2001

The Last Resort

Acapulco used to be a favorite destination of beautiful people from Texas and elsewhere. It still should be. November 1997

Westheimer, Ho!

Accessories for sexual adventurers, columns for your Craftsman bungalow, tasteful tables made from old manhole covers: You can find it all on this reborn Houston strip. July 1997

Green Eggs and Kao

I thought I’d teach my young son’s Laotian friend about all the essentials of American culture, including Dr. Seuss. I just never imagined how much he’d teach me. March 1997

Crew’s Control

Bare and spare, J. Crew’s newest retail outlet pays homage to refined minimalism. September 1992

San Antonio Shopping Guide

Where to find the best food, crafts, and arts in the Alamo City. June 1973

Reporter

New Chinatown, Houston

February 2008

Westheimer Road, Houston

Westheimer Road, Houston August 2007

Throwing a Party

Party tricks from Jackson Hicks. February 2007

West Nineteenth, Houston

West Nineteenth, Houston. December 2006

It Is the Heat

Hot enough for you? September 2006

The Enron Show

Scenes from the Enron reality show. June 2006

Six Ways To Sunday

The New England Patriots weren't the only winners at the Super Bowl. Houston won too, sort of. March 2004

Stanley Marcus

Mimi Swartz sizes up the legacy of Stanley Marcus. March 2002

Fear Itself

Mimi Swartz finds fear at home. December 2001

Water World

Mimi Schwartz considers the wake of Tropical Storm Allison. August 2001

Mercy!

The latest star pupil of the so-called Houston school. December 1996

Web extras

Man Hunt

Executive editor Mimi Swartz talks about Wadih el-Hage and this month's cover story, "The Traitor Next Door." April 2002