Gone to (and From) Texas
Jake Silverstein on what first drew him to Texas, what kept him here, and what he will miss as he takes his leave.
Jake Silverstein is the former editor in chief of Texas Monthly. He attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, and also received degrees from Hollins University, in Roanoke, Virginia, and the Michener Center for Writers, at the University of Texas at Austin. In the late nineties, he worked as a reporter for the Big Bend Sentinel, a weekly newspaper in Marfa. In 2005 he became a contributing editor to Harper’s Magazine. His first book, Nothing Happened and Then It Did: A Chronicle in Fact and Fiction, was published in 2010 by W. W. Norton. His work has also appeared in the anthologies The Best American Travel Writing 2003 and Submersion Journalism (2008). He joined the staff of Texas Monthly as a senior editor in 2006. In 2008 he was named the fourth editor of the magazine. During his editorship, which ended in 2014, the magazine was nominated for eleven National Magazine Awards (the industry’s equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize) and won two, for general excellence and feature writing. Silverstein lives in New York and is the editor of the New York Times Magazine.
Jake Silverstein on what first drew him to Texas, what kept him here, and what he will miss as he takes his leave.
Sometimes all you have to do is ask.
The human cost of a militarized border.
This week, we will publish a 25,000-word story, the result of an in-depth investigation into the 1982 Lake Waco murders, one of the most confounding criminal cases in Texas history.
An epic year of reporting.
Paul Qui's Rabbit Seven Ways.
Texas restaurants are some of the hottest in the country, and also some of the most down-to-earth. Literally.
The legendary Dan Jenkins has been covering sports since the forties. Things have not improved.
No ideas but in things.
Cecile Richards on abortion, women in office, and how Wendy Davis is different from her mom.
Yeah, we blew it. Our January 2014 Bum Steers cover shows the wrong Astros uniform. So we'll be the first to admit that we deserve a bum steer.
A remarkable and richly deserved award for Pam Colloff
A new look for Texas Monthly.
We are what we eat, and everything we eat has a story.
Were it not for the fact that it looked a little weird on the cover, I would’ve insisted that we call this a food issue, not the food issue. Magazines are always putting out what they call “the Food Issue,” and this is precisely what we set out to do six
In November 1973, Texas Monthly, which was still in its first year of existence, marked the tenth anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy with a profile of Lee Harvey Oswald’s mother, Marguerite; the cover, however, went to Tom Landry. Two years later, in November 1975, the
For fifty years, journalist Hugh Aynesworth has been one of the foremost authorities on the Kennedy assassination for one simple reason: he saw it all.
A firearm. A wheelchair. And quite possibly, the next governor of Texas.
Money and politics. There’s a reason this issue features a report on wealth in Texas alongside a pair of stories that look ahead to the 2014 elections. Despite the occasional quixotic effort to remove the former from the latter, the two are deeply intertwined. Only in very rare instances does
Diane Ravitch’s scorched-earth critique of high-stakes testing and education reform.
Why we put Johnny Manziel on the cover as a superhero.
By nine p.m. Eastern Standard Time on the second Saturday in December last year, we knew exactly who would be on the cover this month. That was the night that Johnny Manziel became the first freshman ever to win the Heisman Trophy. As soon as the holidays were over, we began
Politics can usually be described along the same lines as that old cliché about the weather: if you don’t like it, just wait five minutes and it’ll change. The will of the electorate is fickle, as constant in its attachment to any particular politician as to any particular variety of breakfast
Every year on the Fourth of July, the Austin neighborhood where I live has a fairly extensive parade. It’s about as all-American a scene as you can imagine: flags, classic cars, little kids riding on their parents’ shoulders, the smoky scent of backyard barbecues. Usually there’s at least one person dressed
The shy, edgy, friendly, shaggy, hardworking genius behind the most anticipated new Texas restaurant in years.
Our June issue, which comes out next week, will settle once and for all the question of Texas BBQ v. all other forms of BBQ.
The University of Texas Board of Regents chairman on the fog of war, the battles over higher education, and the future of learning.
The University of Texas Board of Regents chairman on the controversies over higher education and the future of learning.
Creating an edible logo.
Things have changed dramatically since we published our last list of the state’s top fifty barbecue joints, in 2008. Not only has there been an unprecedented flourishing of new joints (sixteen of the places on this year’s list were not open five years ago, including two of the top four), and
Possibly the tastiest one this magazine has ever created.
Gene Powell, the University of Texas Board of Regents chairman, on the controversies over higher education and the future of learning.
Short loin tenderloin cow ribeye swine tongue shankle. Filet mignon tri-tip leberkas cow, pork belly beef short ribs corned beef. Shank venison shankle doner, jerky filet mignon tongue t-bone rump leberkas sausage. Prosciutto meatball meatloaf boudin. Frankfurter t-bone corned beef sausage beef ribs turducken pork belly pork chicken pastrami jowl
Executive editors Pamela Colloff and Mimi Swartz win two of our industry's top prizes.
I am not ashamed to say that after reading the first draft of this month’s cover story on the Texas coast, by the intrepid and thoughtful Dan Oko, I experienced a fleeting hesitation about publishing it at all. Perhaps we could call a last-minute audible and put Lance Armstrong
Alfredo Corchado’s tragic, hopeful vision of Mexico’s emergence from an era of blood and fear.
The American Society of Magazine Editors announced its nominees for National Magazine Awards yesterday. And the National Magazine of Texas did pretty well.
In March 2003 the best-selling female band in American history touched the third rail of country music. A decade later, the Dixie Chicks belong mostly to history, and the recent recording of two separate albums by the former bandmates underscores the fact that the Chicks, as Chicks, are more or less
Steve Earle on leaving Texas, kicking drugs, and watching himself die on TV.
The story from our March issue about the case of Andre Thomas is the fruit of an exciting collaboration with our pals at the Texas Tribune.
Lance is back. Why? And how did we get the story?
Austin is known, somewhat ostentatiously, as the Live Music Capital of the World, but as any longtime resident knows, the best show in town is not a musical performance at all. In fact, it is mostly tuneless, it has little in the way of rhythm, and no one has ever tried
Austin is known, somewhat ostentatiously, as the Live Music Capital of the World, but as any longtime resident knows, the best show in town is not a musical performance at all. In fact, it is mostly tuneless, it has little in the way of rhythm, and no one has ever tried
Money makes the world go round - Susan Combs on budgets, borrowing, and race cars.
Forty years ago, as the very first issue of Texas Monthly was being put together by Bill Broyles & Co., Life magazine folded. Though it would later resume publication (before finally folding again in 2007), and though it continues on today as a pretty
A sneak peek of the cover of our fortieth anniversary issue and an important announcement regarding the future of TM Daily Post.
For thirty years, when she wasn’t writing books or winning genius grants, Sandra Cisneros has been pushing and prodding San Antonio to become a more sophisticated (and more Mexican) city. Now she’s leaving town. did she succeed?
Looking ahead to our next forty years.
Congratulations, Lance! Here's one title you won't be stripped of.
A federal court struck down Texas' voter ID law today, but on July 13, Texas Monthly editor Jake Silverstein spoke to Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who had this to say about the case.