Books
December 6, 2023
Texas Is Bursting With Independent Books
Our state’s legacy of great writing has a publishing tradition to match. Here are a handful of the dozens of outfits producing great books in Texas.
161 Articles
Books
November 6, 2023
Elizabeth Crook’s Thrilling New Western
‘The Madstone,’ a sequel to 2018’s ‘The Which Way Tree,’ is a compelling read on its own terms.
News & Politics
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?
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.
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?
Texas Icons
January 17, 2023
The Rise and Fall of the Bush Family Dynasty
You can’t blame Jeb.
Texas Icons
January 17, 2023
No Store Has Grown More Than H-E-B
Why the grocery chain’s rise has proven unstoppable.
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.
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.
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.
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.’
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Books
August 2, 2018
The Road to ‘Presidio’
Randy Kennedy on the Texas locales that helped shape his debut novel.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
Film & TV
July 20, 2017
Which Matthew McConaughey Movie Should I Watch?
The McConaughey flowchart to end all flowcharts.
Books
June 21, 2017
What to Read This Month
Summer reading—Texas style.
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.
Miscellany
June 21, 2017
Best and Worst
It was the best of covers, it was the worst of covers.
BBQ
May 25, 2017
Nobody Knows the Pork Ribs We’ve Seen
Nobody knows the coleslaw.
Books
May 24, 2017
What to Read This Month
The best books by and for Texans coming out in June 2017.
BBQ
May 18, 2017
Parlez-Vous BBQ?
One man’s crazy quest to conquer the culinary capital of the world with smoked brisket.
News & Politics
April 20, 2017
Miscellany
The numbers behind our May issue.
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.
Books
March 23, 2017
The Fiesta You Don’t Know
Cornyation, lampooning San Antonio's social elites since 1951.
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.
The Culture
March 22, 2017
The One-Question Interview: Philipp Meyer
One question with the executive producer of 'The Son.'
Books
March 22, 2017
Rise and Shine, the McRaven Way
A typical morning for William McRaven.
The Culture
February 23, 2017
The Painter in Chief
George W. Bush, portraitist.
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.
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.
Art
August 24, 2016
Dream Life
The incandescent unreality of Rocky Schenck is on display in the photographer's second collection.
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.
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.
Travel & Outdoors
May 26, 2016
Something in the Water
Getting wet, getting scared, and getting my family a little closer to Texas at Schlitterbahn.
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.
Real Estate Boom
March 28, 2016
Movin’ On Up
In-migration, by the numbers.
March 23, 2016
Recent Arrivals
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
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.
Music
January 27, 2016
Modern Spanglish
Carrie Rodriguez’s new album finds her delving deep into her family history.
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
Infographic
November 18, 2015
Life and Death
A death penalty in decline.