Reached by phone Tuesday, Parsley told Poynter that news of his Pulitzer win was overwhelming. He said he felt all the emotions at once.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really proud to be a part of Texas Monthly, and I\u2019m really proud of my family, and I think that\u2019s what I\u2019m feeling most right now,\u201d Parsley said. \u201cIt is complicated because of what this story is about, and my family still very much feels in the thick of it in terms of our grief over the loss of Clay. We miss him every day. It\u2019s been a process, trying to separate the event from the work that I\u2019ve done and that we\u2019ve done here at Texas Monthly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parsley said his family remains his top priority.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reaction that I got from my husband Patrick, my dad Clint, my sister Alissa, her husband Lance, and everybody else who is part of our family has been the best part. They\u2019re happy for me. They\u2019re proud, and that means everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
The day after the floods, on the heels of unimaginable pain, Parsley emailed Ross McCammon, editor-in-chief of Texas Monthly. The message was about 1,000 words, describing in sober language what had happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a haunting email. I\u2019ve never read anything like it. It felt like he just needed to get something down,\u201d McCammon said. \u201cAnd I was also struck by just how vivid the writing was in the email itself.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCammon called Parsley out of concern. They talked. McCammon encouraged him to take care of himself and his family.<\/p>\n
Later, something tugged at Parsley. He wanted to write more.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then the next day, he called me, and he said, \u2018I want to write about this,\u2019\u201d McCammon said. \u201cAnd I needed to become an editor again. I just said, \u2018OK.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Parsley said he wanted to write this story because he had a message to share about his sister, Alissa, and what happened to her on the morning of July 4, 2025, and what she was able to do. In the article, Parsley details how she fought to save her daughter, Rosemary.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew that it was going to be a really difficult, long road ahead. And I knew that she would have a hard time \u2014 feelings of guilt and all kinds of difficult things come up. It was very clear to me that she was a hero and that she did everything that she could to save herself and save Rosemary,\u201d he said. \u201cI just wanted to put it out there that she\u2019s a hero, and let people know what it was like to be there, and how difficult it was, and how scary it was, and how close we all came to dying.\u201d<\/p>\n
After deciding Parsley would move forward with writing the deeply personal account, McCammon contacted J.K. Nickell, Texas Monthly\u2019s story director. They both readied themselves to receive a draft.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Parsley said he\u2019s not typically a writer, although he has written in the past. He gave a lot of credit to McCammon, the story\u2019s editor. \u201cThe conversations that we had \u2014 we talked about giving testimony, bearing witness, and just saying what happened,\u201d Parsley said. \u201cThere was something about those early conversations, before I sat down to write, that gave me a real sense of freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parsley said he had a lot of trust in McCammon and the team at Texas Monthly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The magazine staff worked to replace the planned August issue cover story with Parsley\u2019s story, which required a photographer to go out to the site. Parsley\u2019s stepbrother accompanied the photographer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/guadalupe-floods-jordan-vonderhaar-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
A view of the remains of the Parsley family home. (Jordan Vonderhaar\/Texas Monthly)<\/p>\n
\u201cAaron was also not only reporting out the story with his family members, because they were all separated in the river \u2014 he was also helping our fact-checkers,\u201d McCammon said. \u201cI think that\u2019s important for people to understand, that he wasn\u2019t just writing. He was reporting and he was coordinating, and he was also supporting his family and his sister. And he wrote the story for his sister.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parsley said the stakes were high. This was about his family, right after the flood, during what he described as the most difficult days of their lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the most important story that I\u2019ve ever worked on,\u201d McCammon said, \u201cand I recognized from the very beginning what a monumental effort it was by Aaron Parsley.\u201d<\/p>\n
In that sense, McCammon added, the Pulitzer win was gratifying.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tricky because it\u2019s such a sad story, so it didn\u2019t feel celebratory. This was an important story, and I think this was an important award. This recognition feels very important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parsley said he is proud of his family and their strength. Toward the end of the piece, he turns his gaze to his niece.<\/p>\n
\u201cRosemary, I also want you to know that we had so much fun the day before the flood. We swam in the river until you wanted to jump from the rope swing,\u201d Parsley wrote. \u201cThat came as no surprise, because ever since you took your first steps on your first birthday, you\u2019ve been a fearless, observant, determined little girl.\u201d<\/p>\n
He wrote about how, that night, Clay had climbed onto the couch next to his sister and smiled.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was, as always, so happy to be by your side.\u201d<\/p>\n
He wanted to give his niece a picture of the beautiful day that they had before.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just a joy to be with her and her brother, Clay. And I thought that that might get lost in everything that came next. So it was important to me to include some of that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last year, for the Fourth of July, Aaron Parsley and his family stayed at their river house on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[103594,34610,103595,71725,27,1659,29,21628,28],"class_list":["post-280999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-2026-pulitzer-prizes","tag-central-texas-floods","tag-feature-writing","tag-pulitzer-prize","tag-texas","tag-texas-floods","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-monthly","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}