Before joining the Texas Monthly staff, in 1989, executive editor Skip Hollandsworth worked as a reporter and columnist in Dallas and as a television producer and documentary filmmaker. During his tenure with the magazine, he has received several journalism awards, including a National Headliners Award, the national John Hancock Award for Excellence in Business and Financial Journalism, the City and Regional Magazine gold award for feature writing, and the Texas Institute of Letters O. Henry Award for magazine writing.
He has been a finalist four times for a National Magazine Award, the magazine industry’s equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize, and in 2010 he won the National Magazine Award in feature writing for “Still Life,” his story about a young man who, after suffering a crippling football injury in high school, spent the next 33 years in his bedroom, unable to move. The 2011 movie Bernie, which Hollandsworth co-wrote with Richard Linklater, is based on his January 1998 story, “Midnight in the Garden of East Texas.”
His true crime history, The Midnight Assassin, about a series of murders that took place in Austin in 1885, is being published in April 2016 by Henry Holt and Co.
Articles by Skip Hollandsworth
The verdict is in: Oprah loves Texas—and Texas loves Oprah. The queen of daytime talk swept into the Panhandle, turned the tide of public opinion, and had courtroom watchers asking, Where’s the beef?
The feud between billionaire Harold Simmons and his daughters is worthy of Shakespeare.
She had a secret life, and so did her husband. For a while they seemed to have a pleasant existence in the affluent Houston neighborhood of River Oaks. But then she turned up dead.
Frankie Mitchell and Janet Evans want to be together, but their families are feuding. It’s a story as old as Shakespeare—older, in fact, because they’re Gypsies, the children of two prominent Dallas clans, and ancient superstitions guide every aspect of their lives. Even love.
Thought the competition between Texas cities was over? Until my daughter was born in Dallas and a friend’s was born in Austin, so did I.
David Graham and Diane Zamora were intelligent, young, and in love. And they shared a secret: They had brutally murdered Adreianne Jones.
Carolyn Farb wrote the book on charity fundraising, so when she calls, the stars come out to play, and Houston�s high society has a ball.
No one ever suspected a thing until she asked her best friend if she could keep a terrible secret: the bizarre story of teenager Marie Robards, the devoted daughter who murdered her father.
There haven’t been many successful sister acts in the world of modeling, but don’t tell that to the Parkses. Farm girls who grew up near Arlington in the tiny community of Webb, 20-year-old Wende, 22-year-old Becky, 23-year-old Kelly, and 26-year-old Kimberly piled into the front seat of a pickup truck…
After twenty years as the reigning queen of the soaps, the essential truth about Morgan Fairchild remains: She’s not a bitch, but she plays one on TV.
Since the day Stanley Marsh 3 finally went too far and locked up George Whittenburg’s son in a chicken coop, all of Amarillo has been abuzz about the bizarre battle between these intractable foes.
A young black man with a spotless record is facing a controversial death sentence for the murder of four whites. An East Texas town remains divided.
BESIDES THE TASTE OF ITS CHIPS, Frito-Lay’s advertising has had a lasting impact on Americans. Grown-ups can still sing all the words to “Ai-yi-yi-yi, I’m the Frito Bandito” and “Munch a Bunch of Fritos.” Only time will tell if the supermodels’ plug for Baked Lay’s will join the ranks of…
Is it possible to have a low-fat chip that tastes good? After three years of top-secret tinkering, Frito-Lay thinks it has hit upon the ultimate snacker’s delight.
Mary Kay Ash and Jinger Heath have made fortunes getting women to buy and sell their beauty products. But no lipstick or powder can conceal the ugliness between these Dallas cosmetics queens.
Eleven years after the death of her youngest daughter, Tanya Reid sits in an Amarillo prison. Is she a murderess, or has she been railroaded by overzealous procecutors?
How glad-handing Hollywood and hidebound NASA joined forces to make Apollo 13, one of this summer’s hottest movies.
Citizens groups in Corpus Christi blame pollution for high cance rates—but they must prove it.
Ron Kirk is ready to be Dallas’ first black mayor. But is Dallas ready for him?
Should Hollywood remake Giant? On the fortieeth anniversary of the filming of the Texas epic, we imagine Brad Pitt playing jett Rink’s grandson, Quentin Tarantino directing, and other scary scenarios.
The Humane Society wants to rein in Beltex of Fort Worth, one of the nation’s largest slaughterhouses.
He’s part Susan Powter, part David Letterman, part Dagwood Bumstead—and more.
When a teacher romances a student, are school officials to blame? That’s the crux of a case that began in the small town of Taylor and ended up in the U.S. Supreme court.
One night the pastor of Dallas’ all-powerful First Baptist Church mysteriously resigned. To this day, no one is sure why.
To Dallas, the World Cup meant gearing up for riots, a crime wave, and—of course—real football.
The family that plays together stays together. Meet one of the world’s most successful classical music clans.
After fifteen years, Tommy Tune and Larry L. King are at it again: The sequel to the most famous musical about our state opens of Broadway.
For an off-beat trip, head to Glen Rose, home of dinosaur tracks, exotic animals, a creationism museum, and lots more.
Tough guy Chuck Norris’ kick is better than his kiss on the TV hit Walker, Texas Ranger.
She was the princess who wore Tiffany perfume. He was the middle-class guy who raced cars. But when they met on the cystic fibrosis wing of a Dallas hospital, romance bloomed.
Decades after Carolyn McMorris died of a massive head injury, her sisters shockingly allege that their stepmother murdered her.
We started out as pious kids helping Wichita Falls celebrate the birth of Christ. We ended up astray in a manger.
Police officers Randy Harris and Swany Davenport were called heroes for busting Dallas drug dealers. But when they broke the laws they had pledged to uphold, the dealers cried foul—and the heroes got busted.
How did Vickie Smith, waitress from Mexia, become Anna Nicole Smith, world-famous face? It’s anyone’s Guess?