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Brian D. Sweany

Brian D. Sweany's Profile Photo

Brian D. Sweany has been the editor in chief of Texas Monthly since July 2014. A native Texan who was born on Texas Independence Day, he began his career in journalism as an intern at the magazine in 1996, and in the intervening years, he held nearly every possible job in the editorial department. Before being promoted to his current post, he was a senior executive editor in charge of Texas Monthly's political coverage. Sweany has also worked as an assistant professor in the journalism department at Ithaca College, in New York, and as a senior editor at D Magazine, in Dallas. He is active in a number of civic and volunteer organizations, serving on the boards of the Texas Book Festival, the Texas Cultural Trust, and the Frank W. and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism at the University of North Texas, in Denton. He lives in Austin with his wife, two children, and an ever-growing manuscript for The Kingdom of the Saddle, a biography of Charles Goodnight to be published by Penguin.

462 Articles

Travel & Outdoors|
May 31, 2006

Water, Water Everywhere

From kayaking on Town Lake to mountain biking around Joe Pool Lake, from bass fishing on Lake Fork to horseback riding on the shores of Lake Whitney, here are some of our favorite things to do in, on, and around Texas lakes.

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Web Exclusive|
April 1, 2006

Star Writer

Contributing editor Stephen Harrigan talks about his new book, Challenger Park, which was excerpted in this month’s issue.

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Texas History 101|
February 1, 2006

Texas History 101

LBJ’s most important election wasn’t the presidential race he won. It was the Senate campaign he lost.

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Sports|
July 31, 2002

Game Boys

Staubach and Aikman, together at last. A Bum Phillips belly laugh. Jerry Levias, first and always. These and other heroes of Texas football, past and present, pose for a pigskin portfolio.

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Atsbox|
June 30, 2002

Special Occasion

USA TODAY If you’re looking for a way to make this Fourth of July memorable, then head to Big D, where “big” is the operative word. Dallas is planning the largest fireworks display in the history of the state as part of the AT&T Trinity Fest. The free celebration (tickets

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Sports|
May 31, 2002

Hartbroken

When general manager John Hart arrived in Arlington last November, he promised to turn the Texas Rangers into winners. Then the team got off to its worst start in history. Some things never change.

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Atsbox|
April 30, 2002

Straight Talk

MODEL ATHLETE LISA LESLIE, the starting center for the defending world champion Los Angeles Sparks, sashays into the Compaq Center on May 27 to play in the Houston Comets’ season opener.First of all, let me congratulate you on winning the WNBA title. Thanks. It’s a pretty great feeling. Our team

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Sports|
March 1, 2002

The Franchise

Is the Dallas Mavericks' Mark Cuban a pushy billionaire with a lust for publicity, or is he an energetic owner who has saved the team? Do we have to choose?

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Sports|
February 1, 2002

Green With Envy

The University of North Texas Mean Green Eagles had one of their most exciting football seasons ever last year. Too bad everyone was talking about UT.

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Sports|
December 1, 2001

Centered

When David Robinson opened a school for poor kids in September, he proved once again that he was San Antonio's most valuable player.

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Atsbox|
November 1, 2001

Sports

THE CHAMP The Cowboys’ stock may be down (okay, it’s Black Tuesday down), the Rangers may be struggling (okay, struggling like a beached whale), but at least we can brag on the Astros, who at press time were in the thick of the pennant race. Home team or not, though,

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Around the State|
November 1, 2001

Sports

THE CHAMP The Cowboys’ stock may be down (okay, it’s Black Tuesday down), the Rangers may be struggling (okay, struggling like a beached whale), but at least we can brag on the Astros, who at press time were in the thick of the pennant race. Home team or not, though,

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Sports|
November 1, 2001

Less Is Moore

For almost four decades, G. A. Moore, Jr. has quietly gone about becoming the greatest high school football coach in Texas history.

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Web Exclusive|
August 31, 2001

Cheers to Salman Rushdie

Novelist Salman Rushdie, whose new book, Fury, will be published by Random House in September, kicks off the twenty-first annual Margarett Root Brown Houston Reading Series on September 10 at the Alley Theatre.

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Politics|
August 31, 2001

The Ex-Mayors

If you counted up the combined years of total public service of the following former mayors, you’d discover that it covers more time than the longest of Texas droughts. Here’s why some of our well-known “local” politicians are stumping nowadays. Steve Bartlett (Dallas, 1991-1995) is the president of Financial Services

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Politics & Policy|
August 31, 2001

Dirty Thirty

Idealistic? Yes. Reform-Minded? Absolutely. Bipartisan? That Too. During the 1971 session, the state representatives who came to be known as the Dirty Thirty were everything you’ve learned not to expect in politics. The group—which eventually numbered 35 members—put aside party loyalty (Democrats (D) are marked in blue,

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Sports|
August 31, 2001

Nancy Lieberman-Cline

Is there anything Nancy Lieberman-Cline can’t accomplish? The most storied female basketball player in the world won a gold medal at the Pan-American Games in 1975, a silver at the Montreal Olympics in 1976, led Old Dominion University to two national championships in 1979 and 1980, became the first

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Sports|
August 31, 2001

Ken Hall

When Cedric Benson wrapped up his high school career this year, the star of Midland Lee’s football team had rushed for 8,423 yards, earning the title of the best running back in Texas. But even those eye-popping stats put him far behind the state’s most prolific rusher of all

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Politics|
August 31, 2001

Ronnie Dugger

If the remedy to what happened in last year’s presidential election is to impeach the five Supreme Court justices who voted to stop the recounts,” says Ronnie Dugger, “then it would follow logically that you would impeach George W. Bush on the grounds that he is in receipt of stolen

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Politics|
August 31, 2001

Craig Washington

“I’m a proud member of the Texas Farm Bureau,” says Craig Washington, the former Democratic state representative, state senator, and U.S. congressman from Houston. The 59-year-old now spends much of his time on his farm near Bastrop, where he has lived since he left Congress in January 1995. “On the

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Texana|
August 31, 2001

The “Sugarland Express” Gang

In 1974, one year before Steven Spielberg became a household name with the release of Jaws, the director made his feature film debut with The Sugarland Express. The plot centered on the May 1969 kidnapping of a Department of Public Safety trooper named Kenneth Crone. Fugitives Robert and Ila

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Sports|
August 31, 2001

The Dallas Cowboys’ Ex-Quarterbacks

As the Dallas Cowboys head into the 2001 season, it’s anyone’s guess as to whether the quarterback of the future will be Tony Banks, Quincy Carter, Anthony Wright, or none of the above. What we do know is where some of the quarterbacks of the past are huddling up these

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Happy Trails|
June 30, 2001

Happy Trails

Plano isn't just a plain ol' suburb of Dallas. It has parks, history, and much more. Honest.

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Sports|
April 1, 2001

The Better Deal

Forget A-Rod's $252 million contract with the Texas Rangers. Jeff Bagwell of the Houston Astros has more important numbers to brag about.

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Music Review|
March 1, 2001

Old 97’s

What do you want the Old 97’s to be? When the Dallas band released their first CD, 1994’s Hitchhike to Rhome, they knocked down blazing alcohol-soaked love songs and a fine cover of Merle Haggard’s “Mama Tried,” firmly grabbing a spot in the alt-country canon. But on Satellite Rides, their

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Texana|
December 1, 2000

Seeing the Light

An old cemetery. A deserted crossroads. A ghostly reflection—or a figment of our imagination? On the trail of a West Texas mystery.

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Sports|
November 1, 1998

Hannah Storm

When I graduated from Notre Dame in 1983, I wanted to be a sportscaster. But at the time there were very few women doing that, so I had a difficult time finding a job. I answered some want ads in a broadcasting publication, and one of the advertisements was for

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The Ex Files|
September 30, 1998

Joel Coen

I came to Austin in 1979 because I was married to a woman in the graduate program in linguistics at the University of Texas. I enrolled in the graduate film school there, but after one semester I quit. I had just gotten out of New York University, and my leaving

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The Ex Files|
August 31, 1998

Elliott Smith

I lived in a series of suburbs: DeSoto, Duncanville, Cedar Hill. My stepdad was into places with bigger and bigger yards, and we kept moving farther and farther away from people. I remember there were a lot of white folks and there wasn’t much money. I was kind of a

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The Ex Files|
July 31, 1998

Stephen Tobolowsky

When I was a kid, I spent all of my days in the woods up by Cripple Creek. I formed the Dangerous Animals Club with a friend of mine named Billy Hart, and we made a list of all the nastiest things on the face of the earth: centipedes, scorpions,

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Arts & Entertainment|
June 30, 1998

Brad Maule

When I was five, my family got a television, and it was like a meteorite had landed on the farm. That’s when I knew I wanted to be in show business, but I had to keep it a secret because you couldn’t tell people that. My school had this talent

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Books|
May 31, 1998

James Lee Burke

I THINK I GOT interested in writing when I was in the fifth grade. I started writing short stories, and I remember wanting to get them published in the Saturday Evening Post. In high school I wrote a lot of poetry, but I wasn’t a good student; I think I

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