Most Recent in Politics:

1Is Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner Headed for a Second Term?

2Joe Barton Resurfaces with a Blueprint for How to Bail Out the Oil Industry and Worsen Climate Change

3‘Almost Akin to a Political Coup’: Houston Teachers Fight Back Against State Takeover of HISD

4On Rodney Reed Case, Greg Abbott Gets a Political Reprieve

5John Cornyn’s Weaselly Immigration Record

6Texas Congressional Candidate Shannon Hutcheson Defended Corporations Against the Vulnerable. EMILY’s List Endorsed Her Anyway.

Most Recent in Environment:

1Bald Eagle Numbers at Lake Buchanan Are Declining. No One’s Exactly Sure Why.

2How Katharine Hayhoe Stays Hopeful as the Planet Warms

3As Port Neches Plant Smolders, Trump Rolls Back Safety Rules for Chemical Plants

4Joe Barton Resurfaces with a Blueprint for How to Bail Out the Oil Industry and Worsen Climate Change

5East Texas Rivers Could Become a Boiling Pot for Mussels

6The Long Battle to Stop the Kinder Morgan Pipeline

Most Recent in Border:

1A World Without Immigrant Prisons

2‘We Build the Wall’ Lands in South Texas, Vilifies Priest and Butterfly Refuge

3John Cornyn’s Weaselly Immigration Record

4Activists Rally for the Closure of Hutto Detention Center as Private Contract Rumors Swirl

5When ICE Emptied Out an All-Women Detention Center in Texas, Chaos Ensued

6The Fear—and Hope—of Living in Sanctuary

Most Recent in Criminal Justice:

1A Top Cop Accused of Racism Forces Austin to Confront Bias in Law Enforcement

2Why I Started a Book Club in the Harris County Jail

3Texas’ Method for Funding Courts is a Colossal Waste of Time and Money

4On Rodney Reed Case, Greg Abbott Gets a Political Reprieve

5Having My Period in Prison Was Awful. In Texas, That May Finally Change.

6The Movement to Free Rodney Reed Illustrates the Growing Unease Over Texas’ Use of the Death Penalty

Most Recent in Education:

1‘Almost Akin to a Political Coup’: Houston Teachers Fight Back Against State Takeover of HISD

2The Creature of Martin Creek Lake Won’t Die

3The Cost of Carve-Outs

4Texas Legislature Improves Suicide Prevention in Schools, but Makes Little Progress for Adults

5Texas House Considers Free College For Students Experiencing Homelessness

6‘The Wolf is in the Henhouse’

Most Recent in Health Care:

1Everyone Wants to End Surprise Medical Billing in Texas, but No One Wants to Pay for It

2The Last Nurse in Memphis, Texas

3The Rural Health Care Crisis, Mapped

4Driving My Life Away

5Scenes from a Rural Hospital’s Final Day

6State Investigators Identify ‘Serious Contractual Violations’ by the Heidi Group

Most Recent in The Interview:

1How Katharine Hayhoe Stays Hopeful as the Planet Warms

2Author William Lopez on How Immigration Raids Inflict Long-Lasting Trauma

3Why a Texas Gun Control Activist is Optimistic About the Chances for Reform

4American Health Care is Broken, Especially in Texas. What Can We Do About It?

5Thousands of Rape Kits in Texas Went Untested For Years. Lavinia Masters Is Ending That.

6Floodplain Maps Are Outdated. This Scientist Wants to Change That.

Most Recent in Books:

1A World Without Immigrant Prisons

2Two New Books Explore the Limits of the #MeToo Movement in Texas and Beyond

3I’ve Lived in East Austin for 60 Years, and I Don’t Recognize it Anymore

4American Cities Weren’t Revitalized by the White ‘Creative Class.’ Immigrants Made Them Great.

5Short Story Contest Winner: ‘Dear Mr. Gottlieb’

6Author William Lopez on How Immigration Raids Inflict Long-Lasting Trauma

Most Recent in Features:

1The Ghosts of Jefferson

2Little Arthouse on the Prairie

3The Clothes that Make the Man

4Washington Crossing the Rio Grande

5Ghosts of the Baker Hotel

6At Home in the World

Most Recent in Essay:

1Why I Started a Book Club in the Harris County Jail

2A Chain Reaction

3Having My Period in Prison Was Awful. In Texas, That May Finally Change.

4Up From the Desert

5To Understand the El Paso Massacre, Look to the Long Legacy of Anti-Mexican Violence at the Border

6Lost in Limbo in the Hays County Jail

Most Recent in Eye on Texas:

1Eye on Texas: The Broken Wheel Ranch Project

2Eye on Texas: Spike Johnston

3Eye on Texas: Loren Elliott

4Eye on Texas: Charlotte Moore

5Eye on Texas: ‘My Joyful Dance’

6Eye on Texas: Ghosts of the City

Most Recent in Poetry:

1Author Saeed Jones on Empathy, the Power of Memoir, and Growing up Gay in North Texas

2Remembering W.S. Merwin, Honorary Texan

3Lost in Limbo in the Hays County Jail

4Houston Poet Analicia Sotelo’s Debut Smashes Latino Stereotypes

5Parallel Planes

6Options

Back of the Book

Zellner Brothers’ Latest Film Explores Fact as Fiction

by Josh Rosenblatt | Tue, Jun 30, 2015 at 16:01 CST

Alfredo Corchado Discusses Midnight in Mexico

by Nick Swartsell

Tue, Jun 4, 2013

Alfredo Corchado, Mexico City bureau chief for The Dallas Morning News, will be at Austin’s Book People on Wednesday at 7 PM to discuss his new book Midni...Read More

Mary Karr talks Diet Coke, DFW, and the Birth of Sparkle

by Brad Tyer

Thu, May 23, 2013

Texas’ own Queen of the Memoir, Mary Karr, gives a salty interview to Salon‘s Nina Puro, wherein she disses Augusten Burroughs, dishes on David Fost...Read More

When is a Mural just a Billboard?

by Brad Tyer

Thu, May 16, 2013

As a more-or-less-native Houstonian and longtime resident now removed from the city of bayous, I take a certain rubbernecking joy in watching my hometown’...Read More

Submit: 2013 Texas Observer Short Story Contest Now Open for Entries

2013 Texas Observer Short Story Contest now open for entries

by David Duhr

Thu, May 2, 2013

When Larry McMurtry agreed in 2011 to guest-judge The Texas Observer’s first short story contest, we at the magazine were thrilled: what better name to attach...Read More

Winning Words

by David Duhr

Mon, Apr 15, 2013

A few weeks ago we offered a roundup of Texas books recently nominated for or winning major awards. As literary awards season rolls on, we have a few notices ...Read More

Second Edition in San Antone

by Brad Tyer

Thu, Apr 11, 2013

Saturday April 13 is a big day for books in Texas, as Austin’s long-running Texas Book Festival expands to San Antonio for a first-ever single-day event c...Read More

New and Noteworthy Books: March

by David Duhr

Fri, Mar 22, 2013

Benjamin Alire Saenz’s story collection Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club, published by El Paso’s Cinco Puntos Press, has won the 2013 PEN/Fau...Read More

Michelle Shocked

Michelle Shocked Responds to Gay Marriage Rant Controversy

Wed, Mar 20, 2013 |

Texas songstress Michelle Shocked responds to her incoherent rant regarding gay marriage and California's Proposition 8, which would ban it. ...Read More

Robert Leleux on Lawrence Wright

by Brad Tyer

Fri, Mar 15, 2013

As Wright is quick to point out, theology doesn’t have to make sense; there are aspects of any religion that can’t survive logical scrutiny. But even by tha...Read More

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