Mimi Swartz, the 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 to 2001. 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 “Not What the Doctor Ordered.” She was also a National Magazine Award finalist for her November 2005 issue story on tort reform, titled “Hurt? Injured? Need a Lawyer? Too Bad!” and won the 2006 John Bartlow Martin Award for Public Interest, Magazine Journalism, for the same story. In 2013 she won her second National Magazine Award (again in the category of public interest), for “Mothers, Sisters, Daughters, Wives,” a compelling look at the state of women's health care in Texas.
Over the years, Swartz’s 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 and graduated from Hampshire College, in Amherst, Massachusetts. She now lives in Houston with her husband, John Wilburn, and son, Sam.
Articles by Mimi Swartz
Houston cartoonist Michael Fry takes on the trials of two-career parenting.
In Houston, Kennie Matthews’ wife was killed in a midday robbery. Another senseless murder, and yet another reason why Texans’ fear of crime has never been higher.
We are sixth-generation Texans and we are Jews. My family’s history is an account of the price we have paid to be both.
After years of decay and death, a Houston neighborhood ravaged by the disease is learning to live with it—and surviving.
The story of this notorious East Texas city isn’t a simple racist fable. It’s a complicated tragedy about a society that has lost its way.
Stardom has caught up with Tommy Lee Jones—finally. But don’t expect him to act like he’s enjoying it.
In her new book, Georgette Mosbacher gives feminism a feminine touch.
Ikea appeals to twentysomethings who are beyond bricks and boards but not yet ready for a lifetime furniture commitment.
Is folksy, friendly Kenny Rogers an insatiable phone-sex addict? Three women from the Dallas-Fort Worth area say he is, and now the Houston-born singer is fighting to restore his good name.
So what if Barney’s New Age niceness annoys some parents? His TV show is a hit with toddlers—and a financial bonanza for the Dallasites who brought him to life.
Twenty years ago, we were two-steppers. Now we’re twelve-steppers, thanks to a set of self-help gurus.
With wit and grit, Amarillo-born photographer Mark Seliger persuades reluctant celebrities to show their true selves.
When the young daughter of a friend walked sooner than my son, my feminist politics collided with my loyalties as a mom.
Being the nation’s most famous interpreter of Texas politics sounds like fun. But for Molly Ivins, success has been no laughing matter.
Bare and spare, J. Crew’s newest retail outlet pays homage to refined minimalism.
Two prominent families, one soapy feud. What could be better for a summer miniseries?
How to beat the heat, find the food, and master the coasters at Texas’ four big theme parks.
A report from the front lines in the battle of the sexes—inside the Aggie corps.
Some Vietnamese immigrants live the American dream. But for the family of Vu Dinh Chung, the dream turned into a fatal nightmare.
Blood in the Streets. Houstonians and homicide detectives struggle to cope with a deadly crime wave.
Like Houston, the Galleria was hit hard by the bust. Now savvy marketing and a face lift have brought back its glamour.
To understand Wanda Holloway’s dark and desperate story, you have to start with where she came from.
His unconventional regimen-and his media savvy-have made him the latest of the Texas celebrity heart doctors.
Love, love, kiss, kiss: New York’s hippest store meets Texas’ fashion capital.
Kristin Bauman, the 21-year-old with a $1.2 million trust fund, learned early on that notoriety is far more seductive than propriety.
Revealing profiles of Ann Richards and Clayton Williams raise the question: How about none of the above?
My phone habit saps my energy and drains my wallet. But wait—there’s my other line. Can you hold?
In honor of the Economic Summit, Houstonians are cleaning up their act and driving themselves nuts.
She might have long legs, blond hair, and eyes as blue as a Panhandle sky. But a Texas woman isn’t really beautiful unless she works at it.
Houston’s West University area was just a quiet, unpretentious neighborhood until the bulldozers moved in. Now everyone’s trying to keep up with the Georgians.
A small-town boy’s journey from Texas to the cosmos.
What kind of woman gets her own skin-care company, a place in Nouvelle Society, and the second-most-eligible bachelor in the world? Meet Georgette Mosbacher.
In the town George Parr once dominated, a nineteen-year-old mother was gang-raped by her neighbors. In the aftermath of the crime, the old horrors of San Diego have surfaced anew.
Houston’s city controller prided himself on being the most scrupulously honest politician in town. So why did he sign his name to someone else credit card?
With a mother in one city and a father in another, Audrey Reynolds took to the air.
Buying shoes is a passion for some women. Selling shoes is a passion for Doyle Moody. That adds up to a perfect fit.
While U.S. businessmen and Mexican bureaucrats see her as the answer to their economic prayers, factory worker Graciela Fernandez just tries to get by—on about 66 cents an hour.
Arresta is a toy store for grown-ups, where every item is selected to seduce the slavishly stylish.
For eight years, I had a love affair with Houston. When the good times ended, we drifted apart. But while it lasted, we had the time of our lives.
You can buy almost anything on shopper’s TV, if you have the patience to sit and watch it.
From goggle that let you see in the dark to voice changers that you sound like Daffy Duck, the Counter Spy Store is stocked for the age of paranoia.