Art
September 22, 2022
The Best Books, Film, TV, Art, and More Coming to Texas This Fall
This season has everything: Cormac McCarthy, Star Wars, Chippendales dancers, and opera.
Books
Reviews, profiles, and interviews that capture the diverse voices adding to Texas’s rich literary tradition
Books
September 20, 2022
A User’s Guide to All the Banned Books in Texas
Discussions of race or sex, or just the wrong vibes, are all it takes for a book to number among the 801 bannings in Texas this year.
By
Dan Solomon
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Books
September 15, 2022
A Debut Novelist Brings Secrets, Queerness, and Potato Salad to Small-town Texas
Bobby Finger, host of the popular celebrity podcast ‘Who? Weekly,’ treats his subjects gently and imbues them with wit.
Books
September 6, 2022
Is Everyone Welcome in Texas?
Three new books remind us that some of the issues roiling the state have been with us for a very long time.
Books
August 31, 2022
Remembering When Texas Was Run by Women
Mary Beth Rogers, who served as Ann Richards’s campaign manager and chief of staff, reflects on Texas politics in ‘Hope and Hard Truth.’
By
Katy Vine
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Books
August 29, 2022
The ‘Moby Dick’ of Texas Football Novels Is Hard-hitting as Ever
West Texans didn’t much appreciate Don DeLillo’s ‘End Zone’ at the time, but it elevated the lexicon of football to high art.
Art
August 12, 2022
San Antonio Is All of a Sudden a Great Public Art Destination
A vibrant new book by photographer Frederick R. Preston and former Texas poet laureate Carmen Tafolla captures San Antonio’s wealth of public murals, mosaics, and sculptures.
Books
August 11, 2022
A New Poem by Sandra Cisneros
From her forthcoming collection, ‘Woman Without Shame.’
Books
July 21, 2022
In an Urgent New Book, “Floodies” Reinvent the Story of Hurricane Harvey
‘More City than Water: A Houston Flood Atlas’ brings together a team of writers, scholars, designers, and eyewitnesses from the front lines of climate change in a grand experiment.
Tacos
July 14, 2022
On Salsa, Dragons, and Fatherhood: A Taco Editor Bonds With His Son
A beloved children’s book led the pair to collect salsas and hot sauces and host live tastings on Instagram.
Books
July 14, 2022
Ten Reasons to Believe We’re Living in the Golden Age of Texas Fiction
Disemboweled zombies, gritty female crime investigators, harrowing tales of family dysfunction—today’s crop of Texas novels has something for everyone.
Books
July 14, 2022
Texas Novelists Are Finally Ready to Grapple With Our History—Yes, All of It
The author of ‘Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk’ believes a critical mass of writers is pushing beyond the fairy tales of the past.
Books
July 14, 2022
Can’t Find a Texas Novel to Read This Summer? Here’s a Guide for You.
Whether you’re a crime fiction addict or you’re looking for a romantic comedy, there’s a book for everyone.
Books
July 14, 2022
‘The Devil Takes You Home’ Is Very Creepy—and Very Much About Right Now
In Gabino Iglesias’s horror novel, racism, a broken health-care system, and Mexican cartels meet up with powerful brujas and disemboweled zombies.
By
Jeff Salamon
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Books
July 14, 2022
Has Texas Finally Found Its William Faulkner?
With her stunning debut novel, ‘Perish,’ LaToya Watkins draws on her family’s deep roots in West Texas.
Books
July 14, 2022
Is Fernando A. Flores the Gabriel García Márquez of the Texas Borderlands? Or the Kurt Vonnegut?
In his new short story collection, the Austin writer offers a fantastical view of the Texas borderlands. Just don’t call it “magical realism.”
Books
July 14, 2022
Why Are Texas Novelists So Fascinated by Galveston?
Kimberly Garza’s coastal debut, ‘The Last Karankawas,’ draws on her childhood memories of one of the city’s lesser-known ethnic enclaves.
By
Katy Vine
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Books
July 14, 2022
Can One Novel Heal the Wounds of an Upscale Houston Neighborhood?
A conversation with Chris Cander, the author of ‘A Gracious Neighbor.’
By
Mimi Swartz
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Books
July 14, 2022
Sergio Troncoso Is Making Sure That Texas Literature Represents All of Texas
In his latest novel and as president of the Texas Institute of Letters, the Ysleta-raised writer is pushing us to rethink the Lone Star literary canon.
Books
July 13, 2022
Playing the Ghost
A short story.
Books
July 13, 2022
In Texas, Women Crime Authors Have Finally Escaped the Shadow of ‘Gone Girl’
In Texas, women crime authors are finally escaping the influence of Gillian Flynn’s best-selling thriller.
Business
June 13, 2022
Southwest Airlines Publishes Its Gospel of Herb
The Dallas carrier—whose success is often studied in business schools—offers up its own, self-promotional version of its management secrets.
Books
June 10, 2022
Texas Has Always Been a Great Setting for the Apocalypse
Robert Evans’s ‘After the Revolution’ is the latest entry in the rich canon of speculative fiction that draws on our real-life deadly climate, big money, sinister villains, and true believers.
Books
June 2, 2022
New Barbecue Books Add a Pinch of Inspiration for Aspiring Pitmasters
These seven books cover the basics of smoking and grilling while livening things up with recipes for smoked duck lasagna and key lime cake.
Style & Design
May 31, 2022
Art or Blasphemy? Whatever Your Take, Book Wheels Get Bibliophiles Talking
Lubbock-based artist Jon Whitfill is on a mission to transform discarded texts into eye-popping works of art.
Music
May 31, 2022
DJ Screw, in the Mesmerizing Words of Those Who Knew Him
Lance Scott Walker's ‘DJ Screw: A Life in Slow Revolution’ is a worthwhile biography and oral history, even for those who already know the story of Screw's short, impactful life.
Texas Country Reporter
May 26, 2022
Inside the Oldest, Largest Independent Comic Book Store in Texas
Third Planet Sci-Fi Superstore in Houston is home to hundreds of thousands of comic books and collectibles.
Style & Design
May 19, 2022
How a Fearless Austinite Wrote the Definitive Book on Anna Wintour
The compelling biography, by Amy Odell, tells the story of the ‘Vogue’ titan’s controversial decades at the helm of fashion.
Books
May 18, 2022
Guggenheim Fellow Tomás Morín’s Unlikely Father Figures
The Mathis native and 2022 Guggenheim fellow ruminates on masculinity in his debut memoir.
Texas Country Reporter
May 6, 2022
The Poison Lady in Gatesville Doles Out Deadly Advice
Luci Zahray is an expert on poison and is a consultant to mystery writers around the world.
Books
May 5, 2022
What Everyone Got Wrong About GameStop, Reddit, and Robinhood
A Wall Street Journal reporter’s book flips the script about the meme stock–trading frenzy that erupted around Grapevine-based retailer GameStop in 2021.
By
Tom Foster
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Books
April 26, 2022
Rolando Hinojosa-Smith Was a Literary Chronicler of Texas’s Borderlands
The award-winning writer and professor, who died April 19 at 93, was often compared to William Faulkner, but that doesn’t tell the whole story.
Books
April 13, 2022
Galveston Vice
Organized crime! Illicit booze! The beach! In this exclusive excerpt from her new novel ‘Last Dance on the Starlight Pier,’ Sarah Bird explores Galveston at the end of the twenties, a setting she calls “a gift to a novelist.”
Books
April 11, 2022
How a Texas Monthly Writer Wound Up Writing Billy Graham’s Biography
William Martin’s journey from Rice professor to Billy Graham expert began with a simple assignment, one that would alter his life for decades to come.
Books
April 1, 2022
Texas Schools Shouldn’t Ban ‘Maus,’ They Should Teach It
Katy ISD is considering a ban on the Pulitzer Prize–winning graphic novel about the Holocaust. Here’s what the book taught me.
By
Dan Solomon
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Books
April 1, 2022
A Reformed “Model Immigrant” Shares What It Costs to Become American
In ‘You Sound Like a White Girl,’ Julissa Arce combines memoir and history to reclaim the Latino identity she pushed away as an undocumented immigrant.
By
Cat Cardenas
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Books
March 28, 2022
A Clever Comic Book Wants to Change the Way We Talk to Moms
Austin artist and doctor Grace Farris’s debut, ‘Mom Milestones,’ inverts the patronizing parenting-book formula.
By
Rose Cahalan
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Texas Country Reporter
March 23, 2022
She’s a Prolific Puzzle Book Author. She Also Has Cerebral Palsy.
Claire Mestepey has built a steady publishing business around her unique approach to word search puzzles.
Books
March 15, 2022
‘The Great Nowitzki’ Does Justice to Dirk’s Greatness
German writer Thomas Pletzinger has written a definitive biography of the seven-footer who brought a title to Dallas and a new era to the NBA.
Sports
February 28, 2022
The One-Question Interview: Thomas Pletzinger
Texas Monthly talks with Pletzinger about his biography of Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki and how jazz helped make Nowitzki great.
Books
February 21, 2022
Lars Eighner’s Memoir of Homelessness Struck Gold. He Still Struggled to Keep a Roof Over His Head.
The Texas writer, who died in December, caught lightning in a bottle with his celebrated 1993 book ‘Travels With Lizbeth,’ but he still couldn’t escape life on the margins.
Sports
February 8, 2022
The Passion of Eric Dickerson
With his ex-team in the Super Bowl and a new memoir on bookshelves, the Hall of Fame running back from Sealy, Texas, is back in the limelight.
Books
January 21, 2022
Texas Monthly Recommends: A True-Crime Tale of Two Murders
‘Blood and Money’ has it all: new oil money, an equestrian heiress, a handsome plastic surgeon, River Oaks mansions, and gossip-worthy trials.
Books
December 13, 2021
Darcie Little Badger’s Engrossing New Novel Blends Lipan Apache Folklore and Oceanography
The San Marcos author draws on her scientific training and tribal storytelling to weave a spellbinding tale in ‘A Snake Falls to Earth.’
By
Dan Solomon
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Film & TV
December 8, 2021
Skip ‘The Freak Brothers,’ and Read the Original Comics by Its Texan Creator Instead
The new show has a strong premise that’s derailed by cheap laughs. But cartoonist Gilbert Shelton’s counterculture strips are still great.
Books
November 19, 2021
How the Alamo Drafthouse Turned Trash Cinema into a Cultural Institution
A new book tells the sweeping tale of the Alamo’s Weird Wednesday series, the American Genre Film Archive, and Austin’s custodians of cult.
Libations
November 19, 2021
Escape to the Tropics at Austin’s Tiki Tatsu-Ya
Indulge in over-the-top cocktails like the Skeleton Cruise, which comes in a boat with dry ice and activates bar-wide light and sound effects.
Books
November 15, 2021
Five Gripping New Texas Thrillers to Keep You Up at Night
You won't be able to put these down.
Books
November 9, 2021
Announcing Our New Book, ‘Being Texan’
The book for anyone who has ever felt the lure of the Lone Star State, already loves it, or simply wants to make sense of the place.
Books
October 27, 2021
The Tall Tale of the Sabine River Goat Man and the Haunted Cemetery
Things unseen moved along the river bank, slithered or crawled or pranced between the thick growths of trees that ran for miles.