Editor-in-Chief's Note | The Paper Chase

   It has been ten years since Texas Books in Review went fully online. This journal was established to bring light and dialogue to books that focused on Texas. Originally established in Tarleton State University, TBR transferred to the University of Texas and, following the establishment of the Center for the Study of the Southwest, here in San Marcos in 1996. Approximately ten years ago, Jesus F. de la Teja, director of the Center for the Study of the Southwest, moved the journal fully online, making access available to anyone with a modem, a computer and an interest in Texas writing.

    Since this decision to make the journal more available, Texas has been in the news.

   Hurricane Harvey, the #snowpocalypse, the Smokehouse Creek Fire, two still-to-be named mega droughts and the Memorial Day and Onion Creek floods have kept our precarious relationship to our environment front and center. Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, and Austin continue to number among the ten largest cities in the country; the once-rural counties surrounding Dallas, Austin and San Antonio regularly make the list of fastest growing in the United States. The many Midwesterners, West Coast expats and international migrants who now live here have contributed to an expanding economy, crowded freeways, pricy housing, and a broader dialogue about the making of Texas. We have all come to rely on wind and solar to make it through difficult weather patches, be it heat or cold. Texans have also jump-started international debates about the meaning of citizenship, be it the communities that came into being after the murder of Houston native George Floyd or the continuous reminders that we share rivers, bridges, railroads, freeways, communities, and a long and intertwined history with Mexico. Whole Woman’s Health has been banished, but courts still consider drag shows part of freedom. People have also not stopped working. Robert Rodriguez, Mike Judge, Taylor Sheridan, and Beyonce have won multiple awards, speaking to the ways that many people see themselves in the lives we lead here in Texas. Even the image of an unimaginably wealthy tycoon has changed, going from the Hunt Brothers in the 1970s to recent arrival Elon Musk. If anything has not changed, it is that Texas is still relevant. But maybe the way the region is relevant is changing.

   We at the Center for the Study of the Southwest think there is no better way to celebrate the move to the digital than to publish a one-time decade review on paper. 

   The people here at the Center have chosen their favorites, their most representative or their most significant book reviews. We have included some of our free-tailed bat winners, a prize for the best writing and commentary for the year. Some are there because we all liked them. 

   The editorial collective here is under no illusion that a single journal can capture the breadth of opinion, of genre, of history, of energy that make Texas books happen.  We just hope that you all will find a review that feeds your curiosity, has you look at the world we share through a different lens, or prompts a chuckle. Most of all, we would like to invite you to be part of our circle of commentary, spending time together thinking about what is important enough about Texas to commit to writing a book.

   We dedicate this issue to all the writers, publishers, and readers that make reading, writing and TBR possible and necessary.