Katy Vine joined the editorial department of Texas Monthly in 1997 and became a staff writer in 2002. As a general assignment reporter, she has written dozens of features on a range of topics, including rocket scientist Franklin Chang Díaz, hip-hop legend Bun B, barbecue pitmasters, cult leader Warren Jeffs, refugees in Amarillo, the moon landing, a three-person family circus, chess prodigies, a woman who kidnapped the Kilgore Rangerettes director and her daughter, an accountant who embezzled $17 million from a fruitcake company, and a con man who crashed cars, yachts, and planes for insurance money. Her stories have been anthologized in Best American Sports Writing and Best Food Writing. Her feature story about a West Texas sting operation was the inspiration for the 2012 television series The Client List.
“The first dance performances I saw were at the Armadillo World Headquarters, where nachos and beer were sold throughout the shows,” says 29-year-old Maydelle Fason. Who could guess that this experience would eventually inspire the former Austinite to pursue a career in cutting-edge dance? As a teenager, Fason received a
“I am a writer from a particular community in Texas,” says 38-year-old Sergio Troncoso. “It’s not even El Paso. It’s Ysleta, the east side of El Paso. I grew up around cotton fields and combines.” That environment has emerged in Troncoso’s stories years after he left for the East
Judy Walgren is outrageous, hilarious, and surprisingly laid-back, but when she starts talking about what she’s working on, there’s no questioning her seriousness. “The whole reason I went into photojournalism wasn’t so much because I love taking photos,” says the 36-year-old Dallasite. “It was a calling to go out and
“Everything I do out in the yard—throwing the baseball with my brother or the football with my dad—always turns into an accuracy contest,” says Drew Brees. And practice, in the case of this twenty-year-old quarterback, has made near-perfect. As the starter at Austin’s Westlake High School during his junior and
Why is he a cult hero to deejays and record collectors— and why is he such a recluse? I wanted to know, so I tried to find him. And I did, in an upscale Houston neighborhood. And we drank beer.
Aspiring actors take note: Getting started in the film industry requires flexibility. “I’ve played a zombie, I’ve played an alien, and I’ve played a lot of nerds,” says John Patrick White. Unlike most performers, however, the 26-year-old Houston native has never had to play the real-life role of working stiff.
A seven-year-old guitarist who makes his stage debut alongside blues legend Albert King is a novelty, even after he has jammed with Buddy Guy, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, and Albert Collins. But what happens when the kid grows up? He becomes a seasoned veteran—more of a contender than less experienced peers
Twenty-two-year-old twins Brent and Brad Hauser have the kind of track record that makes their competitors weak in the knees. Now seniors at Stanford University, the former Kingwood residents have both set school records in the 10,000-meter, 5,000-meter (indoor and outdoor), and 3,000-meter events. At last year’s NCAA championships, Brad
David Hale Smith rejects more than three hundred manuscripts each month, but when he accepts one, publishers take note. Since 1994, when he left the tutelage of Dallas superagent Jan Miller and founded his own agency, DHS Literary, the thirty-year-old has established himself as one of the industry’s young lions,
What’s the first image that comes to mind when you think of a teenage salesman? A kid peddling khakis at the Gap? Well, consider Corpus Christi high school senior Jacob Sudhoff, who sells something more substantial: luxury homes. “I used to ride around my neighborhood on my bike and look
They’re intelligent, business-savvy, techno-friendly, and young—in some cases, very young. Meet thirty Texas multimedia whizzes under thirty and four who just missed the cut.
Elisa Jimenez didn’t start out as a fashion designer. The 34-year-old El Paso native, who is the daughter of sculptor Luis Jimenez, set out for New York City in the early nineties to pursue her interest in sculpture and performance art. In 1995, she says, “I wore a dress I
Watch out, World Wrestling Federation. The famed Roller Derby is back, and Houston native Debbie Rice may prove to be its “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. The 31-year-old holds five national in-line skating records, and clocking in at 61 miles per hour, she’s the fastest downhill female speedskater in the world.
DIANNE HARDY-GARCIA is so earnest in conversation that you might mistake her for a political novice. Don’t. As the executive director of the Lesbian and Gay Rights Lobby of Texas for the past five years, the 33-year-old San Antonio native has had one of the most challenging jobs in a
Luann Williams, the editor and publisher of Pop Culture Press, isn’t the type who waits for opportunity to knock. “In the mid-eighties I was working at a Memphis record store and loved music magazines,” says the thirtysomething Tennessee native. “I was looking at a couple, and I thought, ‘You know,
When twenty-year-old Kristen Link, a junior at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, asked eighteen-year-old freshman Lindsay Long to be her synchronized diving partner in the spring of 1997, Long wasn’t sure she wanted to take the plunge. “It’s scary enough to dive by yourself, and in synchronized diving you have
