News & Politics
July 29, 2024
The Renaming of Robert E. Lee Elementary Started a Civil War in My Neighborhood
What happens when Austin liberals square off against Austin lefties?
Personal Essay
Libations
July 25, 2024
How a Historic Honky-tonk Gave Me Something to Fight For
After working as a “beertender” at Buddy’s Place in Austin, I’ve seen the lengths a close-knit community will go through to keep the lights on.
Being Texan
July 16, 2024
The Lost Boy of Boca Chica
Decades ago, well before Elon Musk ever dreamed of shooting off rockets from the Gulf Coast, my family and I spent a day at the now-famous beach—a day that went terribly wrong.
Food & Drink
July 3, 2024
I Spent Three Years Inhaling Tacos and Corn Dogs in Eating Contests. Here’s Why I Stopped.
As Fourth of July weekend comes around, I’m reminded of my previous life turning to local eating competitions for a large helping of something that never quite satisfied me.
Books
July 2, 2024
A Stroke Didn’t Stop Me From Paddling 86 Miles Down the Nueces River
I’d always dreamed of kayaking down a Texas river to the Gulf of Mexico. After my stroke, a long paddling voyage seemed impossible—but dreams are stubborn things.
Being Texan
May 8, 2024
Texas Parents Are Terrified for Another Triple-Digit Summer
But we’re finding ways to cope, from Colorado vacations to indoor camps and museums, and, of course, lots of time at the pool.
Travel & Outdoors
April 29, 2024
Cut the Crape Myrtle! Texas Deserves a Better State Shrub
Crape myrtles are nonnative and often hideously pruned. How about the azalea?
Being Texan
February 15, 2024
Scenes From a Decades-Long Identity Crisis
More than six decades ago, an unseen figure perched in a Corpus Christi tree posed a question that still has no answer.
BBQ
November 27, 2023
I Went to Kenya to Get Over a Broken Heart. Then Bad “Texas” Barbecue Broke My Heart Again.
When I traveled to Nairobi after breaking up with my fiancée, the brisket I found there inspired me to come back home to East Texas.
Food & Drink
November 21, 2023
I’m Estranged From My Dad’s Family. But Every Thanksgiving, I Have a Reminder of Them on My Table.
My roll recipe has been passed down to the women of my dad’s family for generations. Now that I have kids, I have a different view of the tradition.
Tacos
October 26, 2023
My Midlife Crisis Is Getting Taco Tattoos
Or, really, any tattoos relating to the Mexican culinary experience. Now that I’ve gotten inked eleven times in nine months, I’m wondering why this form of self-expression is calling to me.
Books
October 19, 2023
For Your Next Book, Buy Used—Really Used
Much of the joy of a great used bookstore is in discovering the messages scribbled in a paperback’s margins.
Books
October 16, 2023
How Two Texas Bookstores Are Leading the Fight Against Book Bans
When I wrote my YA novel, I hoped to inspire teens to figure out their beliefs around complicated political questions. But amid a wave of book bans, my book could get prohibited from school shelves.
Being Texan
September 18, 2023
What If Texas Kids Got Spring Vacation Instead of Summer?
It sounds extreme, but so is our weather.
Being Texan
August 25, 2023
How Moving to Texas Helped Me Understand My Parents’ Obsession With the State
Growing up in Georgia, I wanted nothing more than to be a Texan. When I finally moved here, I learned what that really meant.
Food & Drink
August 8, 2023
My Week of Whataburger
When I first arrived in Texas, I didn’t get the fawning over Whataburger. I tried to understand by eating 21 straight meals there.
Travel & Outdoors
August 3, 2023
Why Texans Should Log Off and Touch Grass
Gardening brings us together, even as culture wars divide us over almost everything else.
Food & Drink
August 1, 2023
Theme Restaurant Magic Time Machine Is Just as Mystifying as It Was Fifty Years Ago
One writer—who was served by Velma and ate from a salad bar in a Roadster—finds the eatery, with locations in San Antonio and Addison, equally unnerving and enticing.
Tacos
July 28, 2023
What Makes the Allsup’s Burrito So Legendary?
It’s small-town Texas’s go-to convenience store snack. Texas Monthly’s taco editor finally gives it a go.
Politics & Policy
July 27, 2023
Fahrenheit 105: Why I No Longer Love the Texas Heat
I like to think I am Texas Tough when it comes to the heat. But lately, my fortitude has been tested.
Health
June 15, 2023
When Vertigo Melted My Brain
Can medical science truly explain the mystical, mysterious experience triggered by a simple malfunction in my inner ear?
Travel & Outdoors
June 15, 2023
At 76, This Texas Surfer Is Still Chasing Waves—and Memories
A longtime Houston outdoor-sports writer looks back on sixty years of surfing the Gulf Coast.
News & Politics
April 27, 2023
One Aspiring Mother’s Nightmare in Post-Roe Texas
After learning that their long-awaited baby wouldn’t survive childbirth, two parents suffered the pain of finding maternal health care out of state.
Being Texan
April 17, 2023
My Brother’s Ashes, the Bayou, and an Enigmatic Life
As I untangled Chris’s affairs, I discovered a trove of books, letters, and unarticulated love.
Style & Design
April 11, 2023
An Ode to the Fiesta Medal, That Fabulous Piece of San Antonio Flair
San Antonio’s most-coveted spring party accessory is also a force for good.
Books
April 7, 2023
Why ‘Lonesome Dove’ Gives Me the Creeps
A nightmarish scene in Larry McMurtry’s epic novel triggered my unshakable—and completely illogical—fear of snakes.
Being Texan
April 3, 2023
What Westheimer Means to Me
The 19-mile Houston road isn't the kind of place tourists appreciate. But it's everything I love about my city.
Being Texan
March 31, 2023
Texas First: Taking Bluebonnet Photos of My Kid
I didn’t think I’d get to be a mom. Now that I am, the passage of time confounds me.
Style & Design
March 24, 2023
Fifty, Flirty, and Attending All the SXSW Panels About Aging I Could Find
After decades of visiting the fest, I set out to create an “age-appropriate” schedule packed with talks on menopause and death.
BBQ
March 21, 2023
Rudy’s Bar-B-Q Overnight Shipping Got Me Through the Pandemic in New York
As a Texpat living in New York during the pandemic, indulging in a delivery of family-style brisket and spicy beans kept me close to home.
Business
March 20, 2023
The GameStop Generation Would Like Some Respect
Long before it became a meme stock, the Grapevine-based video game retailer lodged itself in the hearts of a generation entranced by the storytelling it found inside those plastic boxes.
Libations
March 20, 2023
Texas First: A Dr Pepper Loyalist Finally Tries Big Red
Mmmmm, tastes like red.
Food & Drink
March 20, 2023
The Draw of El Fenix’s Sensory Overload
In the Tex-Mex wars of my mind, the victor was never in doubt.
Food & Drink
March 20, 2023
Soggy and Divisive, Chico’s Tacos Are Perfect to Me
Sometimes food is less about the taste (or the ingredients . . . or the presentation) and more about being home.
Tacos
March 20, 2023
Despite Its National Appeal, Chili’s Is a Dallas Restaurant Through and Through
Sure, the restaurant chain was founded in Dallas and is currently headquartered there—but the concept also embraces the Dallas identity.
Being Texan
February 28, 2023
From Camel Herding to Blues Music to Tacos al Pastor: Finding the Middle East in Texas
I long thought they were at odds, but after a summer in Texas and a deep dive into its history, I discovered that they have been married for decades.
Being Texan
February 22, 2023
Finding Weird All Over Again in Rockport
I left homogenized Austin for the Texas Gulf Coast—and felt right at home amid the Speedo-wearing bikers and chicken feet–fed alligators.
Libations
February 13, 2023
How to Become a Regular at a Texas Dive Bar
Follow these tips and tricks to becoming beloved at your local watering hole from the guy who literally wrote the book.
Personal Essay
February 2, 2023
A Novelist and Hollywood Screenwriter Grapples With Her Texan Identity
Attica Locke looks back on her 2012 essay weighing her Houston pride against the fact that “there are things about the state that just don’t work for me.”
Critters
January 17, 2023
I Wrote a Book Called ‘The Leopard Is Loose.’ Then a Leopard Got Loose in Dallas.
An escape in 1950 inspired my novel. The wildly different public reactions show how much our relationship to animals has changed.
Texas Icons
January 17, 2023
The U.S.-Mexico Border Is Not Just a Line on a Map
As a child, I experienced the boundary between Texas and Mexico as its own distinct place. Now I know why.
Texas Icons
January 17, 2023
A Letter to My Fellow Black Texans About Juneteenth
The day commemorating the emancipation of slaves in Texas says as much about our future as our past.
Texas Icons
January 17, 2023
How to Create a Great Magazine Out of Thin Air
Fifty years ago, Texas Monthly was little more than an idea dreamt up by a local lawyer with minimal experience in journalism. Then it was an actual thing. How did that happen?
Texas Icons
January 17, 2023
We’ve Always Claimed That Everything Is Bigger Here. It’s Time for Us to Prove It.
For more than fifty years, the state I call home has repeatedly surprised me. The Texas of 2023? Well, it’s got me thinking a lot about how far we have, and haven’t, come.
Texas Icons
January 17, 2023
Consider the Windmill
Along with its descendant, the towering wind turbine, this spindly mechanism turns fast and slow, measuring out our days.
Books
December 20, 2022
One Decadent Weekend in San Antonio, I Finally Became the ‘Fancy Mom’
After raising three kids on a budget, novelist Amanda Eyre Ward indulges her teen fantasy of being the parent who says, “Order whatever you want.”
Travel & Outdoors
December 16, 2022
Reclaiming the Outdoors for My Abuelos
Edward Abbey’s acolytes and their ilk lament the overcrowding of natural spaces. But the land was never theirs to begin with.
Sports
November 7, 2022
My Life With the Astros
A fan from day one muses on sixty years of joy and heartbreak—and whether winning brings redemption.
Business
October 10, 2022
H-E-B Curbside Changed Me
The convenience of the store’s grocery-pickup service comes at a small financial cost. The personal price is up to you.
Tacos
October 7, 2022
La Morena Wasn’t Just a Restaurant, It Was a West Texas Rite of Passage
In Andrews, this mostly serve-yourself Tex-Mex restaurant was a community staple that’s still remembered fondly after its closing.