Most Recent in Texas Politics:

1Historic Runoff Turnout Sets Stage for Texas Democrats in 2020’s ‘Biggest Battleground’

2Amid a National Reckoning Over Racial Injustice, Royce West Seeks to Upset MJ Hegar—and the DSCC

3Doctors Reverse Course, Say Texas GOP Should Cancel In-Person Convention

4The Next Census Could Determine the Future of Port Arthur

5Texas Had a State Office That Could Have Investigated Racial Disparities in COVID-19 Cases. Lawmakers Defunded it Three Years Ago.

6The COVID-19 Disaster Has Made a Mess of Texas’ Open Government Rules

Most Recent in Environment:

1In Houston’s Fifth Ward, the Storm Never Stops

2How Texas Lawmakers and Industry Have Weakened Citizens’ Rights to Fight Pollution

3Texas Relaxed Environmental Enforcement During the Pandemic, State Data Show

4Editorial: Air Pollution Was Already Killing Us. Then Came the Coronavirus. Why Won’t the EPA Act?

5City Nature Challenge Can Help Us Find Resilience and Mindfulness at Home

6Lessons on the Long Game from Goose Island’s Whooping Cranes

Most Recent in Border:

1El Paso Remembered

2Back to the Wall

3Between Borders

5Along the Border, Witnesses of Smuggling Crimes Are Being Held in Detention, Despite Coronavirus Concerns

6In Migrants Camps Along the Texas-Mexico Border, Close Quarters and Closing Borders Raise Concerns

Most Recent in Criminal Justice:

1In Harris County, A Group is Working to Expand Voting Access in Jails

2Will The Reckoning Over Racist Names Include These Prisons?

3How Long Can You Hide a Dead Body in a Prison Cell?

4Reform vs. Rebuild: Defunding Law Enforcement in Texas

5As COVID-19 Cases Surge, Some Incarcerated People Remain Behind Bars After Making Bail

6A Major Obstacle to Police Reform: The Whiteness of Their Union Bosses

Most Recent in Education:

1The New Ensemble

2Raise a Glass to the Class of COVID-19

3Tough Decisions Ahead for School Leaders in Rural Texas

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

5The Creature of Martin Creek Lake Won’t Die

6The Cost of Carve-Outs

Most Recent in Health Care:

1One of Texas’ Biggest Nursing Home Operators Beset By COVID-19 Cases and Deaths

2Telehealth Could be Great, if Texans Had Access to It

3Texas Nursing Home Residents Were Already at Risk. Then COVID-19 Hit.

4Neglected in Care

5COVID-19 is Surging in Rural Texas, Threatening to Overwhelm Local Hospitals

6He Removed Labels That Said ‘Medical Use Prohibited,’ Then Tried to Sell Thousands of Masks to Officials Who Distribute to Hospitals

Most Recent in The Interview:

1Texas Observer Founding Editor Ronnie Dugger Reflects on 65 Years of Publication

2How Katharine Hayhoe Stays Hopeful as the Planet Warms

3Author William Lopez on How Immigration Raids Inflict Long-Lasting Trauma

4Why a Texas Gun Control Activist is Optimistic About the Chances for Reform

5American Health Care is Broken, Especially in Texas. What Can We Do About It?

6Thousands of Rape Kits in Texas Went Untested For Years. Lavinia Masters Is Ending That.

Most Recent in Books:

1‘A Saint From Texas’ Gets the Lone Star State Right

2‘After the Last Border’ Reveals the Human Cost of Trump’s Draconian Immigration Policies

3In ‘Crooked Hallelujah,’ Kelli Jo Ford Explores How Pain is Passed Down Through Families

4In ‘Separated,’ One Journalist’s Close-up View of the Family Separation Crisis

5Lawrence Wright Embraces Pandemic Panic in ‘The End of October’

6Is it Time to Rethink Texas Suburbia?

Most Recent in Features:

1Young Texans Keep Spelling Bees Going From Home

3San Antonio Embraces Mandaean Refugees

4The Ghosts of Jefferson

5Little Arthouse on the Prairie

6The Clothes that Make the Man

Most Recent in Essay:

1What the Black Lives Matter Protests Mean for East Texas

2Raise a Glass to the Class of COVID-19

3What’s a Bookstore for?

4Lessons on the Long Game from Goose Island’s Whooping Cranes

5In a Pandemic, Poor Defendants Could Pay With Their Lives

6Loneliness in the Age of Coronavirus

Most Recent in Eye on Texas:

1Eye on Texas: Border Tuner

2Eye on Texas: The Broken Wheel Ranch Project

3Eye on Texas: Spike Johnston

4Eye on Texas: Loren Elliott

5Eye on Texas: Charlotte Moore

6Eye on Texas: ‘My Joyful Dance’

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

Back of the Book

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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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