Off Course
I never knew my father, a decorated World War II pilot who died before I was born. But a trek at age 67 to the site where his airplane crashed brought me closer to him than I’d ever dared hope.
What an Obscure Childhood Experience Taught Me About the Nature of Memory
Passing through a desolate stretch of North Texas, I set an anchor in the sea of time.
Where Is My Home?
A culinary obsession that began decades ago in my grandmother’s kitchen sent me on a quest through Central Texas (and way beyond) for kolaches—not the best ones but the ones that would lead me to myself.
Isle Without End
An early castaway described Padre Island as “a wretched, barren sandbank.” It’s better known today as the Gold Coast of Texas, but its identity is still rooted in wildness and age-old solitude.
Nature of the Beast
A tiger, a zoo, a terrifying death.
What Texas Means to Me
God created Texas, and then He created people who would love it.
Feature
We’ll Always Have Austin
In the late sixties, the Capital City was just as thrilling, drug-addled, pompous, and aimless as you’ve heard. Especially if you came from the provinces.
A Double Date With Leatherface
Forty years later, I still can’t forget sitting in a darkened theater to watch “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” with the movie’s leading man.
153 Articles
Being Texan
February 15, 2024
Scenes From a Decades-Long Identity Crisis
More than six decades ago, an unseen figure perched in a Corpus Christi tree posed a question that still has no answer.
Texas History
February 6, 2023
The Alamo’s New Battle Plan
A $500 million restoration seeks to reverse almost two centuries of cultural and physical neglect at the most popular historic site in Texas. There’s never been more of a concerted effort to make things right.
Critters
January 17, 2023
I Wrote a Book Called ‘The Leopard Is Loose.’ Then a Leopard Got Loose in Dallas.
An escape in 1950 inspired my novel. The wildly different public reactions show how much our relationship to animals has changed.
Texas Icons
January 17, 2023
How to Keep a Great Magazine Going
When I started writing for Texas Monthly in 1973, I didn’t expect it to last very long. But it’s still here, five decades later.
Film & TV
November 11, 2021
How the Pandemic Showed Me a Different Way to Watch Movies
Over one hundred movies later, a virtual movie club learned some surprising things about classic movies—and about friendship in dark times.
Books
October 21, 2021
What Texas Inherited From Larry McMurtry
A recent tribute in Archer City gave Texans an overdue opportunity to pay their respects to their state’s greatest writer.
Being Texan
May 17, 2021
What an Obscure Childhood Experience Taught Me About the Nature of Memory
Passing through a desolate stretch of North Texas, I set an anchor in the sea of time.
Art
February 26, 2021
Sculpting Through the Pandemic
I shape clay not to hone the skill but to escape a day job that’s all about honing. Like the philosopher Laozi, I find the value of my handiwork comes from what’s not there.
Texas History
August 19, 2020
The Statues Are Coming Down. Maybe That’s a Missed Opportunity.
As monuments to slaveholders, Confederate soldiers, and Texas Rangers disappear across the state, we’re being forced to reconsider what should be honored, what should be commemorated, and what it’s time to let go of.
Texas History
September 18, 2019
‘Big Wonderful Thing’ Excerpt: “Sediciosos”
In the early twentieth century, long-simmering tensions in South Texas erupted into a grim and brutal race war.
Texas History
September 18, 2019
‘Big Wonderful Thing’ Excerpt: “Savage Ware Fare”
After breaking away from Mexico, the combative Republic of Texas took its fight against Native Americans to the heart of Comanchería, led by a group of militiamen who called themselves Rangers.
Texas History
September 18, 2019
‘Big Wonderful Thing’ Excerpt: “Reason Had Left Its Throne”
As the Civil War violently divided the nation, Texan turned against Texan.
Texas History
June 25, 2019
From the Archives: After the Apollo Program Ended, NASA Settled on a New, Less Glamorous Mission
The shuttle age commences, becomes routine, and draws to a close, while Mars beckons.
Film & TV
October 18, 2017
Woody Harrelson’s Performance in ‘LBJ’ Might Just be the Definitive LBJ
Now it’s Woody Harrelson’s turn to play our thirty-sixth president on-screen. Why can’t we get enough of a man once regarded as utterly devoid of glamour?
Books
February 23, 2017
They Came From the Sky
In this exclusive excerpt from Stephen Harrigan’s forthcoming history of Texas, the first Spanish conquistadors arrive on our shores, starving, haggard, and in no mood for conquest.
Books
December 21, 2016
Frame by Frame
Decades later, Abraham Zapruder’s infamous film still holds a strange power over us.
Books
October 19, 2016
Ben Fountain’s Long Hollywood Talk
The Dallas author on Steve Martin, Kristen Stewart, Vin Diesel, and the “good weird experience” of watching Ang Lee turn his award-winning novel into a major motion picture.
Politics & Policy
July 20, 2016
Whoever Said It Was a Grand Old Party
Elephants never forget, but Texas Reaganites wish they could.
Texas History
June 16, 2016
Off Course
I never knew my father, a decorated World War II pilot who died before I was born. But a trek at age 67 to the site where his airplane crashed brought me closer to him than I’d ever dared hope.
Sports
June 9, 2016
Delay of Game
Discovering the joys of Friday Night Lights, ten years after everyone else.
Film & TV
January 27, 2016
The American
After decades under the radar, Margo Martindale has turned herself into that rarest of things: a famous character actor.
Film & TV
November 18, 2015
John Wayne, Texan?
No, he wasn’t from here. But that hasn’t stopped us from claiming him as one of our own.
Film & TV
September 17, 2015
“Let’s Go Dig Up Dom”
The hopelessly devoted, surprisingly normal, not at all creepy cult of Fandango.
The Culture
June 17, 2015
So About That “Texas Rising” Finale . . .
What this historical dramatization of the Texas Revolution could have been—and what it was.
Texas Rising
June 11, 2015
The Latest Installment Is the Most Superior Yet
“Texas Rising” might even be good.
The Culture
June 4, 2015
We Have Minutiae, But Where is the Nuance?
Usually the devil is in the details, but with “Texas Rising,” the broad brush strokes are more troubling.
The Culture
May 28, 2015
The Very Blurry Line Between Fact and Fiction
Texas Rising has taken historic liberties that have undermined rather than enhanced the narrative momentum of the story.
Film & TV
May 13, 2015
That Sinking Feeling
Don’t invite a history buff to your "Texas Rising" viewing party.
The Culture
December 11, 2014
Who’s That Guy?
Will Marco Perella’s portrayal of a loathsome jerk in Richard Linklater’s Boyhood turn out to be the biggest break of his long, low-profile career—or just another paying gig?
Film & TV
October 13, 2014
Reel Life
Watch any footage from the Texas Archive of the Moving Image, and you’ll find yourself mesmerized by the unfreezing of time.
Film & TV
June 5, 2014
A Double Date With Leatherface
Forty years later, I still can’t forget sitting in a darkened theater to watch “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” with the movie’s leading man.
The Culture
March 4, 2014
Cowboys of the Gulf
Sure, you can catch an awesome wave on the Texas coast, you just have to be patient. And clever. And patient . . .
The Culture
March 3, 2014
Before the McConaissance
Searching for signs of greatness in the tepid rom-coms of this year’s best actor.
Film
January 10, 2014
Dreaming in the Dark
Nearly everything about moviegoing has changed since I first fell in love with the big screen as a kid. But my ardor remains.
The Culture
August 1, 2013
Goodbye to a Writer
Stephen Harrigan bids farewell to John Graves, a great man of Texas letters, who died July 30, 2013.
Politics & Policy
May 13, 2013
The Brief and Frightening Lockdown of the Bush Library
I don’t know what it’s like to be the victim of a terror attack, but as of this weekend I know what it’s like to think you’re the victim of a terror attack.
Travel & Outdoors
April 17, 2013
The Silver Kings
The wild and powerful tarpon once ruled the seas off Port Aransas. Why did the ancient fish disappear? And could they make a comeback?
History
January 20, 2013
My Own Private Alamo
After 164 years, what more is there to say about (or see at) the old mission church in downtown San Antonio? That depends on how you look at it.
Health
January 20, 2013
Sniffing
A visit to San Antonio’s underground city, looking for kids with a can of paint and a nose for thrills.
Film & TV
January 20, 2013
The Making of Lonesome Dove
You can lead a herd to water, but can you make a miniseries faithful to Larry McMurtry’s Texas classic?
Texas History
August 15, 2012
The Children of Texas
I was never certain how to explain the importance of the state to my three daughters. Now that I have two grandsons—named Mason and Travis, no less—I’ve realized something that I should have known all along.
Food & Drink
March 1, 2012
Where Is My Home?
A culinary obsession that began decades ago in my grandmother’s kitchen sent me on a quest through Central Texas (and way beyond) for kolaches—not the best ones but the ones that would lead me to myself.
Books
April 30, 2011
The Peculiar Monument
In this exclusive excerpt from Remember Ben Clayton, a new novel by Stephen Harrigan, a sculptor meets a lonely rancher who has lost his son and needs something to remember him by.
Feature
March 31, 2011
Tusk!
For as long as I can remember, I've been fascinated by mammoths, those giant, prehistoric creatures that once roamed Texas. So I decided to go looking for them.
Feature
June 1, 2010
We’ll Always Have Austin
In the late sixties, the Capital City was just as thrilling, drug-addled, pompous, and aimless as you’ve heard. Especially if you came from the provinces.
Being Texan
March 1, 2010
The Bucket List
63 things that all Texans must do before they die.
Feature
September 30, 2007
Horsemen, Pass By
In Bill Wittliff’s Lonesome Dove photos, make-believe has never seemed so real.
Books
April 1, 2006
Liftoff!
In this exclusive excerpt from Stephen Harrigan’s new novel, Challenger Park, a female astronaut confronts mommy-track issues on the way to outer space.
Feature
April 1, 2003
Heaven & Earth
The break-up of the space shuttle Columbia was a chilling reminder that the astronauts who dare to dream and risk their lives for the benefit of all mankind are, at the end of the day, mere mortals.
Book Excerpt
March 1, 2000
The Gates of the Alamo
An exclusive excerpt from Stephen Harrigan's eagerly awaited novel.