Clowns and Rats Scare Me
San Antonians love Cary Clack for the sparkle of wit and wisdom he brings to them in his column in the San Antonio Express-News. But his style and sensibility make his work equally popular far beyond that city. He offers pithy, probing coverage of national issues such as terrorism, racism, and child abuse, but his keen sense of humor often turns to the stuff of everyday life such as the inexplicable power of Krispy Kreme doughnuts and his terror of clowns. The columns collected here sample the best of 13 years' worth of Clack's amusing and thoughtful commentaries, and begin with an enlightening foreword by noted poet Naomi Shihab Nye.
Cary Clack is a columnist and editorial board member with the San Antonio Express-News, where he was the first Black metro columnist and the first Black member of the editorial board. He has covered local and national news, events, and social issues for three decades. In 2017 he was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters. The Texas Associated Press Managing Editors awarded him opinion writer of the year in 2021, followed by awards for editorial writing in 2022 and both general column writing and editorial writing in 2023. He is the author of Clowns and Rats Scare Me and More Finish Lines to Cross. He lives in San Antonio, Texas.