Brad Tyer
By Brad Tyer:
An Evocative New Memoir of Nature and Loss Never Quite Gets Off the Ground
State of Texas: Climate Change Could Force Native Birds to Fly the Coop
The National Audubon Society's first-ever report on the future of climate change and birds finds Texas soon will become inhospitable to many species. Read More
Richard Parker’s Lone Star Nation Explains Texas to Non-Texans
Are you under the impression that Texas is going to just sit idly by and leave America unmolested by its transformative mojo? Richard Parker is prepared to tell you a thing or two. Read More
Texas Book Festival 2014: The Observer Picks
There must be a million ways to approach the 2014 Texas Book Festival. Here are the authors and events that struck our fancy. Read More
New Biography Compiles the Legends of The Flatlanders
The triumvirate of Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock is a singular musical entity. It’s also an acquired—if acclaimed—taste, and John T. Davis, one of the most well-seasoned of Texas-music scribes, doesn’t bother making too much of a case for the band’s undersung importance, neglected influence, or ill-acknowledged greatness. Read More
Former Observer Managing Editor Chris Tomlinson Introduces Tomlinson Hill
Tomlinson Hill: The Remarkable Story of Two Families Who Share the Tomlinson Name—One White, One Black (St. Martin's Press) has been getting warm notices from Texas Monthly to NPR. Read More
Bill Minutaglio Hands ‘State of the Media’ Over to Andrea Grimes
When we began reinventing the then-biweekly newsprint Texas Observer in 2010 as a glossy-paged monthly magazine, a passel of new columnists was core to the redesign. The first on board was Bill Minutaglio. Bill was a relative newcomer to the … Read More
It’s Story Time! — Texas Observer Short Story Contest Open for Entries
Elizabeth McCracken will judge the 2014 Texas Observer short story contest. Read More
Go Ask Alice—Observer Contributor Jennifer Mathieu Debuts New Novel
We don’t cover an awful lot of Young Adult literature here at the Observer, premature fogeys that (some of us) are, but when we do, we tend to turn to Houston writer/schoolteacher Jennifer Mathieu. Jennifer covered last fall’s Austin Teen … Read More
Fernando Flores’ Punk Rock Fairy Tales Get an Austin Reading
Fernando A. Flores’ Death to the Bullshit Artists of South Texas, Vol. 1 chronicles a Rio Grande Valley that’s never been known as a haven for the punk rock underground — unless you were part of it. Flores was, as … Read More