Most Recent in Politics:

1The New U.S. Food Safety Czar is a Texas Researcher with Close Ties to the Meat Industry

2Texas Republicans’ Pandemic Performance Is True to Form

3Texas Democratic and Republican Parties Spar Over How to Hold Elections During a Pandemic

4How The Coronavirus Pandemic Exposed Abbott’s Hypocrisy On Local Control

5How Christian Nationalism Moved from the Fringe to the White House

6With Paid Leave Policies, Texas Cities Tried to Prepare for Coronavirus

Most Recent in Environment:

1COVID-19 Could Be a ‘Double Whammy’ for Those in Pollution Hotspots

2Coronavirus is Exposing the Faulty Foundations of the Texas Fracking Industry

3In Big Spring, a Rural Community Braces for Another Oil Bust

4In Southeast Lubbock Neighborhood, Residents are Fed Up With a Feedlot

5With Coal Plants Offline, the Air in Central and East Texas Has Cleared

6It’s Illegal to Take Drone Photos of Cattle Feedlots in Texas. Press Groups Say That Violates the First Amendment.

Most Recent in Border:

1In Migrants Camps Along the Texas-Mexico Border, Close Quarters and Closing Borders Raise Concerns

2U.S. Supreme Court Sides with Trump Administration on ‘Remain in Mexico’

3Following a Protest, ICE Moves Asylum-Seekers For the Second Time in Two Weeks

4Trump’s Wall May Have to Avoid Multiple Historic Cemeteries

5Following a Protest, ICE Transfers Dozens of Asylum Seekers to an Isolated Laredo Facility

6In the Trump Era, Practicing Immigration Law is Like ‘Swimming in Molasses’

Most Recent in Criminal Justice:

1In a Pandemic, Poor Defendants Could Pay With Their Lives

2Some Texas Officials Want to Divert People from Jail Amid Coronavirus Scare

3Texas Prosecutor Races Offer Competing Visions for Criminal Justice Reform

4Texas Prisons Ban Greeting Cards, Expand Drug-Sniffing Dog Searches to Visitors

5Alec Karakatsanis on the ‘Usual Cruelty’ of the Criminal Justice System

6Reform Candidates are Trying to Change the Definition of a ‘Progressive Prosecutor’ in Texas

Most Recent in Education:

1Tough Decisions Ahead for School Leaders in Rural Texas

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

3The Creature of Martin Creek Lake Won’t Die

4The Cost of Carve-Outs

5Texas Legislature Improves Suicide Prevention in Schools, but Makes Little Progress for Adults

6Texas House Considers Free College For Students Experiencing Homelessness

Most Recent in Health Care:

1COVID-19 Could Be a ‘Double Whammy’ for Those in Pollution Hotspots

2Abortion Clinics in Texas Rely on Traveling Doctors. Coronavirus is Keeping Some of Them Home.

3The COVID-19 Crisis Points the Way Toward a Better Texas

410 Ways to Help Your Fellow Texans Endure the Coronavirus Pandemic

5Some Texas Officials Want to Divert People from Jail Amid Coronavirus Scare

6ACLU Sues East Texas Towns Over ‘Sanctuary City for the Unborn’ Ordinances

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‘Trust Me’ Tackles Politics, Power, and Perception

2In a New West Texas Novel, Women Kick Ass and Take Names

313 Small Texas Presses to Read Right Now

4How Christian Nationalism Moved from the Fringe to the White House

5In ‘Barn 8,’ an Unsparing Look at the Industrial Chicken Industry

6Gabriel García Márquez and the (Comforting) Case for Embracing Failure

Most Recent in Features:

1San Antonio Embraces Mandaean Refugees

2The Ghosts of Jefferson

3Little Arthouse on the Prairie

4The Clothes that Make the Man

5Washington Crossing the Rio Grande

6Ghosts of the Baker Hotel

Most Recent in Essay:

1In a Pandemic, Poor Defendants Could Pay With Their Lives

2Loneliness in the Age of Coronavirus

3‘Cheer’ Takes an Overlooked Sport Off the Sidelines

4Governor Abbott’s Campaign Against the Homeless Isn’t Just Cruel—It’s Dangerous

5Why a Small Offense Shouldn’t Have Life-Altering Consequence

6Why I Started a Book Club in the Harris County Jail

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

Tag Archives: Elizabeth McCracken

by Rose Cahalan

Elizabeth McCracken’s ‘Bowlaway’ Spins a Dark, Magical Tale of Love, Loss and Bowling

The Austin author is mostly concerned with pain: how we inflict it on each other, and how we keep going, year after year, as our burdens pile up.

Thu, Feb 21, 2019 |

“They found a body in the Salford Cemetery, but aboveground and alive.” That thunderbolt of a sentence opens Elizabeth McCracken’s new novel, Bowlaway, an...Read More

Storytime: Calling for Short Story Contest Entries

Tue, Jun 30, 2015 |

The Texas Observer is holding a short story contest seeking original stories from writers both near and far. Submit your story today for the chance to be...Read More

Fuzhou Nighttime Feeling

Short Story Contest Winner: “Fuzhou Nighttime Feeling”

Sun, Oct 5, 2014 |

Writer Ling Ma wins our 2014 Short Story Contest with "Fuzhou Nighttime Feeling."...Read More

It’s Story Time! — Texas Observer Short Story Contest Open for Entries

Fri, Jun 20, 2014

Elizabeth McCracken will judge the 2014 Texas Observer short story contest....Read More

Reading in Austin: Elizabeth McCracken presents Thunderstruck

by Elizabeth Stewart

Tue, Apr 22, 2014

Elizabeth McCracken will be at Austin's BookPeople at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 22, to speak and sign copies of her new book, Thunderstruck & Other Stories. ...Read More

Literary Death Matches Come to Texas

by Elizabeth Stewart

Tue, Mar 25, 2014

The next few weeks will bring a slew of writers to Austin and San Antonio, but don’t expect the usual staid readings. Instead, authors will do battle for ...Read More

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