A Half-Century of Chronicling Texas

In celebration of our fiftieth anniversary, the February 2023 issue explores Texas icons of all shapes, sizes, species, and more, while telling stories of the characters, places, and institutions that have shaped the great state of Texas for the past fifty years.
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Texas Monthly

Texas Monthly Through the Years

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February 1973
Texas Monthly's first issue was published, selling around 35,000 copies.
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1974
After only one year of existence, the editorial staff’s efforts were rewarded with a National Magazine Award (the industry equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize) for specialized journalism.
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1974
Patricia Sharpe, the current executive editor and restaurant critic, joined Texas Monthly. Initially, she edited the magazine’s cultural and restaurant listings and wrote a consumer feature called Touts.
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November 1995
Texas Monthly’s website launched.
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January 2000
Mike Levy was presented with the Henry Johnson Fisher Award for Lifetime Achievement in the magazine industry by Magazine Publishers of America.
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July 2007
David Courtney debuted his wildly popular advice column, the Texanist, regularly the magazine’s most-read feature.
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September 2008
Texas Monthly launched the official Texas Monthly Facebook page.
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September 2010
Texas Monthly held the first Texas Monthly BBQ Festival. Twenty joints from the 2008 issue top 50 list were featured.
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July 2012
On July 26, 2012, Texas Monthly launched the official Texas Monthly Instagram account.
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March 2013
Texas Monthly hired our first BBQ editor, Daniel Vaughn.
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January 2018
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Texas Monthly’s first podcast, the National Podcast of Texas, launched.
May 2018
Texas Monthly hosted its first Texas Monthly LIVE event.
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September 2019
Texas Monthly hired its first taco editor, José Ralat.
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December 2021
Texas Monthly struck a first-look deal with HBO.
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December 2021
Texas Monthly acquired Texas Country Reporter.
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November 2022
Texas Monthly’s BBQ Festival expanded to two days and moved its home base to Lockhart, Texas.
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November 2022
Texas Monthly released the magazine’s first cookbook, The Big Texas Cookbook.
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Stories That Shaped Our Past

Dive into our archive and discover the stories that have molded Texas Monthly over the past fifty years.
music

A George Strait Song Was the First Music I Played for My Son. Here’s Why.

The author of a 2014 Texas Monthly profile of King George explains why it was among the few stories in his career that made him cry while writing.

By John Spong
sports

Most Sports Figures Were “Paranoid Assholes” to This Writer, Mike Leach was “Fabulous.”

Author S. C. Gwynne calls his 2009 profile of the pirate-obsessed former Texas Tech coach part of the “golden era” of his journalism career.

By Forrest Wilder
film & tv

In 1974, “Texas” was the Dirtiest Word in ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’

John Bloom, a.k.a. Joe Bob Briggs, discusses his 2004 opus on the making of the slasher classic and the New York bias against a Texas original.

By Dan Solomon
the stand up desk

Skip Hollandsworth Recalls “the Most Moving Story of My Career”

The Texas Monthly writer reflects on the run-down home that led him to write “Still Life,” about John McClamrock, the boy who could not move.

By Skip Hollandsworth
politics & policy

The Ballí Saga on Padre Island Reminds Us That the Little Man Can Win

The author of a 2014 Texas Monthly profile of King George explains why it was among the few stories in his career that made him cry while writing.

By Michael Hall

Stories for All Y'all

Texas Monthly is excited to announce the magazine’s new brand campaign. With the help of PlotTwist Creativity out of Dallas, an advertising campaign was developed that puts Texas Monthly’s stories at the center. Thus, our new brand slogan, “Stories for All Y’all”, was born. Texas Monthly hopes that every Texan—and non-Texan, for that matter—can find a reflection of themselves in the pages of the magazine.

Cover Gallery

For fifty years, Texas Monthly has chronicled the state, covering blood-sport politics and bizarre crimes, inventive barbecue and taco joints, favorite swimming holes and honky-tonks, risk-defying wildcatters and other larger-than-life characters. With hundreds of issues in the archive, it’s impossible to pick favorites, so instead we have selected four themes that all readers of Texas Monthly will recognize: the stories, the characters, the land, and the traditions.

view the archive
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march
2022
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August
2022
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Month
year
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year
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year
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Month
year
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Month
year
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Month
year
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february
1973
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june
1974
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july
1975
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december
1976
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november
1977
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november
1978
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july
1979
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october
1980
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february
1981
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august
1982
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june
1983
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june
1984
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february
1985
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september
1985
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april
1986
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january
1987
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march
1988
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october
1989
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july
1990
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june
‍1991
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december
1992
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february
1993
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february
1994
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may
1995
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february
1996
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march
1997
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october
1998
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december
1999
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april
2000
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september
2001
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july
2002
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2003
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april
2004
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july
2005
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august
2006
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january
2007
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may
2008
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september
2008
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march
2009
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december
2009
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may
2010
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august
2011
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august
2012
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november
2012
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june
2013
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june
2014
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may
2015
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july
2016
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october
2017
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june
2018
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july
2018
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september
2019
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july
2020
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april
2021
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february
2022

We’d Love to Hear from You

Help Texas Monthly celebrate half a century of storytelling by calling in to share who or what your favorite Texas icons are and why. You can reach our voicemail prompt at (510) 838-1973.

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Behind the Lines:
The Art of Texas Monthly

From now until December 8, 2023, you can catch a glimpse into Texas Monthly’s art production from the past fifty years at the Behind The Lines: The Art of Texas Monthly exhibit at The Wittliff Collections. This exhibit will be highlighting original artwork and archival photographs found in Texas Monthly’s archive, and also featuring portrait photography published over the fifty-year run of Texas Monthly. 

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Rep the Best in Texas

Want to rep the best in Texas? Shop the fiftieth-anniversary merch at Texas Monthly's virtual storefront.
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