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Are you a poet writing about Texas, or a poet rooted in Texas? We'd love to see your work!

Submissions are OPEN for our magazine's poetry section, now through May 31, 2026. Send in your best, previously unpublished poem of up to 45 lines. 1 poem is selected per issue, and receives a $100 honorarium. Send your work to poetry@texasobserver.org!

Introducing the May/June 2026 issue of Texas Observer magazine, with cover story by Jessica Luther and art by Adrià Voltà.

Visit our site to become a member and receive our magazine, six times per year.

Better late than never to share work you are excited about. Photographed author April Maria Ortiz's (@aprilcicada) piece ‘Time Comes for Castroville’ in the March/April issue of @texasobserver.

This piece grapples with history-- the events that happened and the stories we remember.

One of my favorite lines April closes her piece with is as follows: "Whatever its leaders and residents may wish, time is coming for Castroville. The drive for capital that brought Alsatian colonists in 1844 is bringing another kind of colonist down on their heirs. Castroville embodies both heritage and exclusion—what town doesn’t?—but unless it finds a way to preserve its soul, Texas will lose something irreplaceable."

Huge hank you to Ivan Flores @ivanflr for your encouragement and trust on this assignment.

Link in bio if you want to spend some time with this piece.

#photojournalism

Better late than never to share work you are excited about. Photographed author April Maria Ortiz's (@aprilcicada) piece ‘Time Comes for Castroville’ in the March/April issue of @texasobserver.

This piece grapples with history-- the events that happened and the stories we remember.

One of my favorite lines April closes her piece with is as follows: "Whatever its leaders and residents may wish, time is coming for Castroville. The drive for capital that brought Alsatian colonists in 1844 is bringing another kind of colonist down on their heirs. Castroville embodies both heritage and exclusion—what town doesn’t?—but unless it finds a way to preserve its soul, Texas will lose something irreplaceable."

Huge hank you to Ivan Flores @ivanflr for your encouragement and trust on this assignment.

Link in bio if you want to spend some time with this piece.

#photojournalism

Better late than never to share work you are excited about. Photographed author April Maria Ortiz's (@aprilcicada) piece ‘Time Comes for Castroville’ in the March/April issue of @texasobserver.

This piece grapples with history-- the events that happened and the stories we remember.

One of my favorite lines April closes her piece with is as follows: "Whatever its leaders and residents may wish, time is coming for Castroville. The drive for capital that brought Alsatian colonists in 1844 is bringing another kind of colonist down on their heirs. Castroville embodies both heritage and exclusion—what town doesn’t?—but unless it finds a way to preserve its soul, Texas will lose something irreplaceable."

Huge hank you to Ivan Flores @ivanflr for your encouragement and trust on this assignment.

Link in bio if you want to spend some time with this piece.

#photojournalism

Better late than never to share work you are excited about. Photographed author April Maria Ortiz's (@aprilcicada) piece ‘Time Comes for Castroville’ in the March/April issue of @texasobserver.

This piece grapples with history-- the events that happened and the stories we remember.

One of my favorite lines April closes her piece with is as follows: "Whatever its leaders and residents may wish, time is coming for Castroville. The drive for capital that brought Alsatian colonists in 1844 is bringing another kind of colonist down on their heirs. Castroville embodies both heritage and exclusion—what town doesn’t?—but unless it finds a way to preserve its soul, Texas will lose something irreplaceable."

Huge hank you to Ivan Flores @ivanflr for your encouragement and trust on this assignment.

Link in bio if you want to spend some time with this piece.

#photojournalism

Better late than never to share work you are excited about. Photographed author April Maria Ortiz's (@aprilcicada) piece ‘Time Comes for Castroville’ in the March/April issue of @texasobserver.

This piece grapples with history-- the events that happened and the stories we remember.

One of my favorite lines April closes her piece with is as follows: "Whatever its leaders and residents may wish, time is coming for Castroville. The drive for capital that brought Alsatian colonists in 1844 is bringing another kind of colonist down on their heirs. Castroville embodies both heritage and exclusion—what town doesn’t?—but unless it finds a way to preserve its soul, Texas will lose something irreplaceable."

Huge hank you to Ivan Flores @ivanflr for your encouragement and trust on this assignment.

Link in bio if you want to spend some time with this piece.

#photojournalism

Better late than never to share work you are excited about. Photographed author April Maria Ortiz's (@aprilcicada) piece ‘Time Comes for Castroville’ in the March/April issue of @texasobserver.

This piece grapples with history-- the events that happened and the stories we remember.

One of my favorite lines April closes her piece with is as follows: "Whatever its leaders and residents may wish, time is coming for Castroville. The drive for capital that brought Alsatian colonists in 1844 is bringing another kind of colonist down on their heirs. Castroville embodies both heritage and exclusion—what town doesn’t?—but unless it finds a way to preserve its soul, Texas will lose something irreplaceable."

Huge hank you to Ivan Flores @ivanflr for your encouragement and trust on this assignment.

Link in bio if you want to spend some time with this piece.

#photojournalism

Better late than never to share work you are excited about. Photographed author April Maria Ortiz's (@aprilcicada) piece ‘Time Comes for Castroville’ in the March/April issue of @texasobserver.

This piece grapples with history-- the events that happened and the stories we remember.

One of my favorite lines April closes her piece with is as follows: "Whatever its leaders and residents may wish, time is coming for Castroville. The drive for capital that brought Alsatian colonists in 1844 is bringing another kind of colonist down on their heirs. Castroville embodies both heritage and exclusion—what town doesn’t?—but unless it finds a way to preserve its soul, Texas will lose something irreplaceable."

Huge hank you to Ivan Flores @ivanflr for your encouragement and trust on this assignment.

Link in bio if you want to spend some time with this piece.

#photojournalism

@texasobserver has been telling the stories too many people try to ignore. Stories about prison conditions, medical neglect, and systemic injustice. The realities our community lives every day.

For Lioness, this is personal.

Our members have seen their lives reflected in this reporting. Some have used platforms like this to tell their own stories, challenge harmful narratives, and make sure directly impacted people are not just written about, but heard.

That kind of storytelling shifts power.

The MOLLY Awards is tomorrow.
If you believe in independent journalism and in centering the voices of people closest to the harm, be in the room.
Wednesday, May 6, 2026
Get your tickets: https://www.texasobserver.org/molly-awards/

Support the stories that refuse to be ignored.

#LionessJustice #TexasNews

@texasobserver has been telling the stories too many people try to ignore. Stories about prison conditions, medical neglect, and systemic injustice. The realities our community lives every day.

For Lioness, this is personal.

Our members have seen their lives reflected in this reporting. Some have used platforms like this to tell their own stories, challenge harmful narratives, and make sure directly impacted people are not just written about, but heard.

That kind of storytelling shifts power.

The MOLLY Awards is tomorrow.
If you believe in independent journalism and in centering the voices of people closest to the harm, be in the room.
Wednesday, May 6, 2026
Get your tickets: https://www.texasobserver.org/molly-awards/

Support the stories that refuse to be ignored.

#LionessJustice #TexasNews

@texasobserver has been telling the stories too many people try to ignore. Stories about prison conditions, medical neglect, and systemic injustice. The realities our community lives every day.

For Lioness, this is personal.

Our members have seen their lives reflected in this reporting. Some have used platforms like this to tell their own stories, challenge harmful narratives, and make sure directly impacted people are not just written about, but heard.

That kind of storytelling shifts power.

The MOLLY Awards is tomorrow.
If you believe in independent journalism and in centering the voices of people closest to the harm, be in the room.
Wednesday, May 6, 2026
Get your tickets: https://www.texasobserver.org/molly-awards/

Support the stories that refuse to be ignored.

#LionessJustice #TexasNews

@texasobserver has been telling the stories too many people try to ignore. Stories about prison conditions, medical neglect, and systemic injustice. The realities our community lives every day.

For Lioness, this is personal.

Our members have seen their lives reflected in this reporting. Some have used platforms like this to tell their own stories, challenge harmful narratives, and make sure directly impacted people are not just written about, but heard.

That kind of storytelling shifts power.

The MOLLY Awards is tomorrow.
If you believe in independent journalism and in centering the voices of people closest to the harm, be in the room.
Wednesday, May 6, 2026
Get your tickets: https://www.texasobserver.org/molly-awards/

Support the stories that refuse to be ignored.

#LionessJustice #TexasNews

@texasobserver has been telling the stories too many people try to ignore. Stories about prison conditions, medical neglect, and systemic injustice. The realities our community lives every day.

For Lioness, this is personal.

Our members have seen their lives reflected in this reporting. Some have used platforms like this to tell their own stories, challenge harmful narratives, and make sure directly impacted people are not just written about, but heard.

That kind of storytelling shifts power.

The MOLLY Awards is tomorrow.
If you believe in independent journalism and in centering the voices of people closest to the harm, be in the room.
Wednesday, May 6, 2026
Get your tickets: https://www.texasobserver.org/molly-awards/

Support the stories that refuse to be ignored.

#LionessJustice #TexasNews

SUBMISSIONS ARE OPEN NOW FOR POETRY AT THE @texasobserver. Send in your work about Texas or if you a poet rooted to Texas. Check the flyer for details!

Texas is on track to surpass Northern Virginia as the world's largest data center market by 2030, with more than 400 data centers either operating or under construction across the state. These facilities are projected to consume between 29 and 161 billion gallons of water per year by that same year, a significant figure for a state already grappling with drought conditions.

State Representative Erin Zwiener recently formed the Hays County Data Center Working Group in response to constituent concerns about rising water rates, wells running dry, and questions about what additives are used in cooling systems. While larger developers like Google, Samsung, and OpenAI publicly promote closed-loop cooling systems that reuse water, smaller developers piecing together deals on rural land have raised additional concerns at the local level.

#INNetwork member @texasobserver reports that the issue extends beyond water. At an April hearing, ERCOT President and CEO Pablo Vegas testified that the grid's interconnection queue has grown to over 410,000 megawatts, with 87 percent of recent new projects being data centers. The Texas data center sales tax exemption, created in 2013, is projected to cost the state $3.2 billion over the next two years, and lawmakers are now studying the regulatory framework ahead of the 2027 legislative session.

🔗 Read the full story at the link in bio.

We’re excited to announce our Skye Perryman, as our special guest for this year’s MOLLY National Journalism Prize Gala

A nationally respected lawyer and President & CEO of Democracy Forward, Perryman has led hundreds of legal challenges defending democracy and protecting people from harmful policies.

Named to the TIME 100 and Washington Post’s Next 50, she’s helping shape this moment—and you can hear from her live.

🎶 Plus: a special performance by the Huston-Tillotson Jazz Combo, one of the most exciting young ensembles in the country.

The MOLLYs is more than an event. It’s how we sustain fearless, independent journalism in Texas. When you attend, you make this work possible.

🎟️ Get your tickets now—link in bio.

#TexasObserver #MOLLYs #JournalismMatters #SupportLocalNews #AustinEvents

“Not once has a family been in crisis because of transgender bathrooms. It’s families not being able to afford rent or put food on the table, issues with unemployment or lack of access to jobs that pay living wages.”

When Juan Miguel Arredondo came out of the closet as the first openly gay school board member in San Marcos, Texas, he had one of his loyalest supporters tell him he'd never get reelected. But he's still here, years later, working to protect the most vulnerable students in his district from inequality and the culture wars.

Read our profile from Kit O'Connell, with photos by Harmon Li, in our magazine and out today on our website.

Congress appropriated nearly $47 billion for border barrier construction, funding both 30-foot steel fencing and large orange buoy barriers in the Rio Grande, part of a sweeping plan to add roughly 90 miles of new and replacement wall across the Rio Grande Valley, sealing it off from the Brownsville Ship Channel to Falcon Dam.

Sites that Congress had previously protected from wall construction, including the National Butterfly Center, Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge, and the historic La Lomita Chapel, are now slated for fencing under the One Big Beautiful Bill, which did not maintain those earlier protections.

Families like the Cavazos siblings and Nayda Alvarez, who spent years fighting eminent domain during Trump’s first term, are now bracing to fight again. In the colonia of De La Cruz in Roma, Texas, families whose backyards sit less than 100 feet from the Rio Grande are waiting to hear whether their homes will be acquired and demolished.

At the Salineño Wildlife Preserve — a global birding destination — a volunteer says the construction noise alone may force closure for an entire season, with the surrounding habitat facing what he calls an “unbelievable amount of destruction.”

Full story by michael.gonzlz

Read the full story copublished with @texasobserver at theborderchronicle.com linked in bio. 🔗🦂

The latest from Texas Observer cartoonist Ben Sargent.

Find more from Ben's Loon Star State, and all our latest investigations, on our site.

“The simple fact of the rattlesnake’s venom forces us to pause or accept the consequences. It is an assertion of space—of a right to be—that many of us cannot seem to make peace with.”

In the cover story to our magazine, Asher Elbein asks us to reconsider one of the most maligned animals in our beautiful state. With photography by Brenda Bazán. Read it on our site today.

We’re proud to welcome to the Observer masthead Jesús Jank Curbelo as a special investigative correspondent, a freelance role helping us cover immigration and immigrant communities in Texas.