Books
A Feminist Rewrite of Lot
Set in Hope, Texas, God Spare the Girls subverts the biblical story, in which a man escapes while women perish.
This story is from the May/June 2021 issue. The story of Lot, the famous one, is a story for men. In it, Lot is given a divine warning that his city, Sodom, and...Read More
‘Forget the Alamo’ Unravels a Texas History Made of Myths, or Rather, Lies
Three Texan authors build on a long tradition of dissent from patriotic accounts of Texas history in a new book on the racism baked into our story of the Alamo.
As a former student of Texas public schools, much of what I remember from Texas history class boils down to this: General López de Santa Anna, of Mexico, was e...Read More
‘On Juneteenth’ Refuses Easy Answers About the Importance of People of Color to Texas History
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed offers a historical primer on the conditions that made Juneteenth a holiday and its importance to the nation.
This past summer, celebrating Juneteenth at home in Texas made me feel as though I was at the center of the world. I was used to spending the holiday, which cel...Read More
‘Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing’ Tours Dark Places That Are Hard to Call Home
In her debut book of essays, Austin writer Lauren Hough shares stories of growing up in a religious cult, only to escape and find its oppressive edicts visible in a society at large.
When Lauren Hough was 37, she sold her house, all the stuff in it, bought a Winnebago, and left Maryland, heading west with an iPod full of John Denver. Her deb...Read More
Jung Young Moon’s Strange Novels Cross Continents
Each time Dallas-based publisher Deep Vellum releases a book by Korean novelist Jung Young Moon, a new batch of readers gain exposure to his vivid, bewildering work.
When Will Evans met the Korean novelist Jung Young Moon in Seoul in 2014 on a trip sponsored by the Literary Translation Institute of Korea, he fell in love wit...Read More
Writer Rick Bass Fights for 20 Grizzly Bears
The author’s new collection of essays is a Texas naturalist’s scrapbook of the Lone Star State. It’s also a deep look at the natural world.
Rick Bass wants us to appreciate the beautiful things in nature and do our best not to squander them. The 63-year-old Tex-pat has long been known as a gifted na...Read More
‘Luz at Midnight’ Reimagines Blackouts, Polar Vortexes, and Environmental Justice in San Antonio
A recent novel offers a South Texas story for organizers, scholars, poets, and lovers.
In the not-too-distant future, San Antonio is scrambling to go carbon neutral. They’re turning refineries into apartments and closing coal plants to build mix...Read More
Lady Bird Johnson Was About More Than Wildflowers
Using audio diary recordings, new book Hiding in Plain Sight brings the former first lady out of LBJ’s shadow.
Nearly 14 years after her death, Claudia Alta “Lady Bird” Taylor Johnson’s legacy, to most who know anything about her at all, has been boiled down to...Read More
“Wings of Ebony” Brings Black Girl Magic to Life
Houstonian J. Elle’s young adult novel lets Black girls soar through worlds both fantastical and familiar.
When I Get Home, Houston-born Solange’s 2019 album, is an ode to “a kind of Houston of the mind”—grounded yet ephemeral, breezy yet intentional, capacio...Read More
A New Book Celebrates the Work of Architect John S. Chase
Chase was the state’s first licensed Black architect and the first Black person to receive a master’s degree from the University of Texas.
John S. Chase is the Texas architect you wish you knew about—or perhaps should have already heard of. Inspired by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright with his own ...Read More