Native Texan
Deep in the Heart of the Lone Star State
Native Texan: Stories from Deep in the Heart is a lively and personal tour of small town and big city Texas in search of what makes the state unique. Nationally acclaimed columnist Joe Holley is widely loved for his popular “Native Texan” column, which appears in the Houston Chronicle. In thirty stories curated from column archives, Holley introduces readers to his favorite people and places across the state. From interviews on the “weird” streets of Austin and his search for ghosts in Bigfoot to a decades-long love affair with everything about Marathon and hikes on the back trails of the Big Bend, Holley is a masterful storyteller. His instincts are backed by a seasoned journalist’s passion to measure legends and tall tales against investigations into what really happened. He reveals small-town Texas, and some small towns within the largest cities, with a style that has proven popular with readers and a keen eye for a unique spin on an old story. The result is an entertaining and certainly surprising view of the Lone Star state.
Joe Holleyis on the Houston Chronicle staff, where he serves on the editorial board and writes a weekly column. He is the author of Hometown Texas, Hurricane Season: The Unforgettable Story of the 2017 Houston Astros and the Resilience of a City, Sutherland Springs: God, Guns, and Hope in a Texas Town, and Slingin’ Sam: The Life and Times of the Greatest Quarterback Ever to Play the Game. He was a 2017 Pulitzer Prize finalist for a series of editorials about gun control and Texas gun culture, and a 2022 Pulitzer Prize winner, as part of the Houston Chronicle team. He lives in Austin.
