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Francesca Mari is an associate editor at Texas Monthly. Her essays, reporting, and criticism have appeared in the New Republic, the New York Times, the Paris Review, Dissent, and elsewhere.

30 Articles

Feature|
February 24, 2016

Gender Bender

Colt Keo-Meier is Texas’s preeminent researcher on transgender issues. But for him, it’s not just about the science. It’s personal.

Style & Design|
August 12, 2014

The Click Clique

Amber Venz was just a pretty Dallas girl with good taste and a blog, until she figured out something revolutionary: how to make money with every post. Meet the 27-year-old queen of a whole new fashion empire.

Food & Drink|
April 15, 2014

Fixing the Fruits of the Earth

The sweet onion! The mild pepper! The maroon carrot! These and countless other tasty fruits and vegetables wouldn't exist but for the scientists of the Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Center at Texas A&M, which celebrates its twentieth anniversary this year.

Art|
October 23, 2013

So, Is It Art? Talking to Playboy Marfa Artist Richard Phillips

On August 28, 2013, we talked to Richard Phillips, the artist behind the controversial Playboy Marfa installation. Read more about the art-versus-advertising debate here.FRANCESCA MARI: When were you tapped to do this piece for Playboy?RICHARD PHILLIPS: I was contacted before the New Year by Neville Wakefield, who is the

Art|
October 21, 2013

What Is Art?

When Playboy Enterprises—yes, that Playboy Enterprises—erected a forty-foot-tall sculpture near Marfa, it was convinced the town would appreciate its take on the local art scene. Instead it started a revealing debate.

Politics & Policy|
June 28, 2013

Best and Worst Legislators 2001

Rodney Ellis was excellent. Gary Elkins was— well, significantly less so. Bill Ratliff was a model of dignified leadership. Domingo Garcia was a one-man leper colony. Our biennial roundup of the Legislature's leading lights and dim bulbs.

Travel & Outdoors|
June 5, 2013

Miles and Miles of Texas

The Hill Country Drive, the BBQ Market Drive, the Backwoods Drive, and thirteen other summer trips, from the mountains to the coast, that will take you down some of the prettiest, most picturesque, most wide-open stretches of asphalt Texas has to offer. Buckle up!

Books|
May 24, 2013

Hog Hunting With Texas’s Next Literary Giant

Philipp Meyer is impressing the literary world with his second novel, The Son, a multigenerational epic about an oil and ranching dynasty in Texas that is being called the most ambitious Texas novel in years. But how did this East Coast-reared man manage to capture the spirit of the state?

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