Magazines could kill a man, it turns out.<\/p>\n
My request for a complete print archive of Texas Monthly in my office seemed simple. Problem is, magazine storage is on a whole other floor of the building. Each month is in its own box. Then there\u2019s the sheer weight of them. By my math, the archive weighs a crushing 375 pounds. I needed stronger anchors for my bookshelves. One second you\u2019re reaching for October \u201983, the next second Texas Monthly needs a new editor.<\/p>\n
The complete archive of every issue<\/a> from the 53 years of Texas Monthly represents a lot to me. Quality, for one. And constancy. And, perhaps most of all, effort. We spend\u2014and here I search for the precise word\u2014an unbelievable amount of time making each print issue of Texas Monthly. We also produce podcasts, TV shows<\/a>, and events, and publish about fifty online-only stories each month. But sentence for sentence, nothing we do receives more attention from the staff. Even in 2026.<\/p>\n Having the archive within reach means I\u2019m doing a lot more reading from it. Someone will mention a story to me, and instead of looking for it on our website, I find the print magazine, read the story there, and then flip through the rest of the issue. What a treat. What an inspiration.<\/p>\n I\u2019m becoming more and more equipped to answer the question \u201cWhat are your favorite stories?\u201d We\u2019ve been asking lots of people this question for our \u201cIn the Archives<\/a>\u201d video series, in which interesting people peruse a small storage closet with shelves containing every issue of the magazine and pick their favorite covers and stories. We started it as a pop-up booth<\/a> at the Austin City Limits Music Festival. (It\u2019s even harder to haul the entire archive to a park in the middle of Austin in the heat.)<\/p>\n Someone recently had the bright idea to ask me to head into the closet and expound upon my favorites. I\u2019m filming the segment tomorrow, and I have no idea what I\u2019m going to pick. My go-to answer is Skip Hollandsworth\u2019s \u201cStill Life<\/a>,\u201d about a paralyzed Dallas high school football player and the mother who devotes her life to his care. There\u2019s no better piece of magazine writing. But what about Mimi Swartz\u2019s \u201cMothers, Sisters, Daughters, Wives<\/a>\u201d? What about Michael Hall\u2019s \u201cThe Juror Who Found Herself Guilty<\/a>\u201d? What about Katy Vine\u2019s \u201cThe Positively True Adventures of the Kilgore Rangerette\u2013Kidnapping Mom<\/a>\u201d?<\/p>\n What about Gary Cartwright\u2019s 1973 profile \u201cThe Lonely Blues of Duane Thomas<\/a>,\u201d about the enigmatic Dallas Cowboys running back?<\/p>\n What about Aaron Parsley\u2019s harrowing story<\/a> of surviving last summer\u2019s July 4 floods, published in the August issue? What about \u201c\u200a\u2018Stay Strong, My Brother\u2019\u200a<\/a>\u201d by Elliott Woods, which came out a few months later? I\u2019m neglecting to mention hundreds of great stories, in part because I haven\u2019t read them yet.<\/p>\n There are two dirty secrets about Texas Monthly editors in chief:<\/p>\n 1. We are not intimately familiar with every microregion in Texas.<\/p>\n 2. We have not read every feature story in Texas Monthly.<\/p>\n These hold true for everyone, of course. (Though if you have read every story in Texas Monthly and you are intimately familiar with every microregion in Texas, I want to know you.) I see our archive the way Americans once saw Texas: as a frontier of opportunity (and danger!).<\/p>\n The issues on my shelves are looking at me askance, wondering what I\u2019m waiting for. My favorite story is in there somewhere. So is yours.<\/p>\n This article originally appeared in the March 2026 issue of\u00a0Texas Monthly with the headline \u201cThe Magazines\u2014They\u2019re Moving\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. They\u2019re Alive!\u201d Subscribe today<\/a>.<\/p>\n