Jeff Salamon, Contributor at Texas Monthly

August 14, 2023

We’re Number One!

. . . When it comes to producing renewable energy, winning golf tournaments, banning books, and closing rural hospitals. Why is Texas so darn great . . . and so darn awful?

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Books|

June 19, 2023

How Wendy Davis’s Famous Filibuster Inspired a YA Novel

Texas Monthly staffer Dan Solomon discusses his first book, ‘The Fight for Midnight,’ which comes out as we approach the ten-year anniversary of a dramatic day (and night) at the Legislature.

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A herd of longhorn cattle graze under the skyline in Dallas on August 18, 1984.

Texas Icons|

January 17, 2023

See How Texas’s Big-city Skylines Have Changed Over the Past Half Century

Why has San Antonio fallen behind Houston, Dallas, and Austin?

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U.S. President George Bush poses with some of his children and grandchildren on the White House lawn, in Washington, D.C., on January 21, 1989. Seen from left are: Jeb Bush, Neil Bush with Pierce, Margaret Bush holding Marshall, Sharon Bush and Lauren, Noelle, Barbara and Jenna, the president, George W. Bush, and Dorothy LeBlond holding Ellie.

Texas Icons|

January 17, 2023

The Rise and Fall of the Bush Family Dynasty

You can’t blame Jeb.

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The checkout at an H-E-B in Austin in 1982.

Texas Icons|

January 17, 2023

No Store Has Grown More Than H-E-B

Why the grocery chain’s rise has proven unstoppable.

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George Jones performs in London in April 1981.

Texas Icons|

January 17, 2023

Sixteen of Texas’s Most Influential Cultural Figures of the Past 50 Years

From George Jones to Attica Locke, these Texans have made lasting cultural impacts on the state.

By Texas Monthly

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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.

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Texas History|

February 7, 2022

Texas Monthly’s First Editor Looks Back at What He Got Right and Wrong

Bill Broyles—now best known as a Hollywood screenwriter—remembers the magazine’s first issue.

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Books|

June 22, 2021

Debut Novelist Kelsey McKinney on Losing Her Religion and Leaving Texas

A conversation with the author of the moving and assured ‘God Spare the Girls.’

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Black and white candid close-up of Jerry Jeff Walker.

Music|

November 1, 2020

Jerry Jeff Walker, Remembered by Lyle Lovett, Lucinda Williams, Dan Rather, and Many, Many Others

The New York–born singer-songwriter got to Texas as soon as he could—and spent the next five decades changing the lives of seemingly everyone he met.

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Books|

June 18, 2020

Will Dystopian Times Inspire Utopian Art?

Texas science fiction authors Nicky Drayden and Christopher Brown contemplate the future of writing about the future.

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Books|

October 23, 2019

A Garden Grows in West Texas

The coffee table book ‘Marfa Gardens’ proves that there’s more to desert flora than cactus and agave.

By

Books|

October 22, 2019

Photos of East Austin, Before the Boom

A new book celebrates a pair of well-established African American and Latino communities that are disappearing from Texas’s fastest-growing city.

By

Music|

September 30, 2019

My Friend Spotted a 44-Year-Old Photo of Himself in Ken Burns’s “Country Music” Documentary

The story behind the story behind Austinite Mike Shea’s three seconds of international fame.

By

Books|

June 25, 2019

Remembering Don Graham, the Demanding Critic Who Helped Put Texas Literature on the Map

The UT professor and longtime ’Texas Monthly’ contributor died on Saturday at the age of 79 after a stroke.

By

Books|

August 2, 2018

The Road to ‘Presidio’

Randy Kennedy on the Texas locales that helped shape his debut novel.

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Books|

January 23, 2018

Meg Gardiner’s Dark Past

The Austin thriller writer Meg Gardiner explains her connections to the Golden State Killer and the Oklahoma City bombing.

By

Border & Immigration|

January 23, 2018

The Trump Effect on Immigration

Donald Trump has profoundly discouraged people from coming over our borders. But is his influence wearing off?

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The Texanist|

November 24, 2017

The Texanist: Is it Too Soon to Book a Vacation in Port Aransas?

An Austinite misses the beach, but doesn't want to be a bother.

By

Books|

September 20, 2017

Roger D. Hodge’s Texas Blood

In his new book, Robert D. Hodge explores the Texas borderlands through the seven generations of his ranching family.

By

The Culture|

July 24, 2017

The Seven Question Interview: Adam Sternbergh

Author Adam Sternbergh tells us how a Canadian-raised Brooklynite wrote a book set in West Texas.

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Film & TV|

July 20, 2017

Which Matthew McConaughey Movie Should I Watch?

The McConaughey flowchart to end all flowcharts.

By

Books|

June 21, 2017

What to Read This Month

Summer reading—Texas style.

By

Music|

June 21, 2017

The Five Question Interview: Will Beeley and Billy Stoner

Willie Beeley and Billy Stoner have never met. But from a distance, the two musicians might be the same person.

By

Miscellany|

June 21, 2017

Best and Worst

It was the best of covers, it was the worst of covers.

By

BBQ|

May 25, 2017

Nobody Knows the Pork Ribs We’ve Seen

Nobody knows the coleslaw.

By

Books|

May 24, 2017

What to Read This Month

The best books by and for Texans coming out in June 2017.

By

BBQ|

May 18, 2017

Parlez-Vous BBQ?

One man’s crazy quest to conquer the culinary capital of the world with smoked brisket.

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News & Politics|

April 20, 2017

Miscellany

The numbers behind our May issue.

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Music|

April 19, 2017

Why Midlake Front Man Eric Pulido Has Stayed in Denton

It's not New York or L.A. or Austin, but here's why Midlake front man Eric Pulido calls Denton home.

By

Books|

March 23, 2017

The Fiesta You Don’t Know

Cornyation, lampooning San Antonio's social elites since 1951.

By

Books|

March 22, 2017

One Degree of Jim Magnuson

Over the past 23 years, the founding director of the Michener Center for Writers has helped launch countless literary careers. Here are a few of the program’s most notable graduates.

By

The Culture|

March 22, 2017

The One-Question Interview: Philipp Meyer

One question with the executive producer of 'The Son.'

By

Books|

March 22, 2017

Rise and Shine, the McRaven Way

A typical morning for William McRaven.

By

The Culture|

February 23, 2017

The Painter in Chief

George W. Bush, portraitist.

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Books|

January 25, 2017

Enemies, A Love Story

George Saunders explains how writing about Trump voters and writing a novel required the same skill: understanding people you don’t agree with.

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Books|

September 15, 2016

True Western

Paulette Jiles wasn't born in Texas, but she started writing novels set here as fast as she could.

By

Art|

August 24, 2016

Dream Life

The incandescent unreality of Rocky Schenck is on display in the photographer's second collection.

By

Health|

July 6, 2016

A Better Pill to Swallow

The dean of Dell Medical School wants to reinvent health care for the twenty-first century.

By

Books|

June 22, 2016

Mission Admonished

A new biography takes a hard look at our forty-third president’s foreign policy record, with assessments that often stand in stark contrast with Bush's own verdict on his presidency.

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Travel & Outdoors|

May 26, 2016

Something in the Water

Getting wet, getting scared, and getting my family a little closer to Texas at Schlitterbahn.

By

Books|

April 20, 2016

Interview With a Vampire Writer

Justin Cronin on Texas, our toxic environment, and the long-awaited finale to his best-selling science-fiction trilogy.

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Real Estate Boom|

March 28, 2016

Movin’ On Up

In-migration, by the numbers.

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March 23, 2016

Illustration by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. Click to enlarge.When Governor Greg Abbott announced, in the wake of the November terrorist attacks on Paris, that Texas would not accept any new Syrian refugees, he was flouting the law of the land: the placement of refugees within the United States

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Business|

February 24, 2016

The Bottom Line

MBAs Across America CEO and co-founder Casey Gerald explains why it’s hard to change the world.

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Music|

January 27, 2016

Modern Spanglish

Carrie Rodriguez’s new album finds her delving deep into her family history.

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Arts & Entertainment|

December 23, 2015

How J. Frank Dobie Got His Groove Back

In 1975 the estate of J. Frank Dobie (1888–1964) established an endowment that would allow the University of Texas Press to keep his books in print for decades to come. Forty years later, the arrangement is still in place, and the press annually sells thousands of copies of

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