Editor's Note

This fall issue of Texas Books in Review is another milestone in the journal’s history. In August, our editor-in-chief, Dr. Frank de la Teja, retired from the Center for the Study of the Southwest and from Texas State University. Though Frank will be missed, we are all happy to welcome our new program director, Dr. John Mckiernan-González.

   Dr. Mckiernan-González has been working in history departments for nearly twenty years, focusing on Texas and other borderlands, migration, public health, public history and Latina/o studies. His book, Fevered Measures: Public Health and Race at the Texas-Mexico Border, 1848-1942, focuses on how communities shaped the ways the United States Public Health Service drew medical borders through Mexican, African American, and Anglo border communities. Since taking over as director, John has helped bring in guest speakers such as Max Krochmal, Joseph Avski, and Francisco Laguna Correa, and he is already planning more special events and publications for the Center. We hope all our readers are as excited as we are to welcome him.

   We are also pleased to announce the addition of our newest editorial fellow, Claudia Cardona. Ms. Cardona is currently a candidate in the MFA program of creative writing where she is focused on poetry. Besides being a dedicated poet, Claudia is the editor-in-chief and co-founder of Chifladazine, a literary journal with a focus on emerging works by Latinas and Latinxs. Our previous editorial fellow, Samuel Garcia Jr., graduated with his Ph.D in School Improvement, and currently serves as a NASA educator professional development specialist and an assistant professor of practice for the LBJ Institute for STEM Education and Research here at Texas State University.

   Texas Books in Review and the Center for the Study of the Southwest have not been alone in going through changes. As the season draws to an end, many of us reflect on a turbulent year for the nation and especially for the Lone Star State: We think of the shootings in Sutherland Springs, the women’s march in Austin, and Hurricane Harvey and its devastation along the Gulf Coast. There is no doubt that 2017 will be a year remembered by all. Before 2018 comes along with all of its surprises, we hope we can also look back on some impressive books.

   Jason Mellard, from the Center for Texas Music History, gives us his thoughts on All Over the Map: True Heroes of Texas Music by Michael Corcoran. Dr. Mellard has long been a lecturer in history as well as a friend of the center, and we’re sure you’ll be thrilled by his ideas. Texas Books in Review’s former editor, Mark Busby, tackles the newest criticism about Larry McMurtry, too. Busby, a well known McMurtry scholar always has ideas and insights, so you’ll definitely want to read his piece of Steven Frye’s Understanding Larry McMurtry. Our regional editor Octavio Quintanilla also contributes a review of Emmy Pérez’s latest poetry collection, With the River on Our Face, which focuses on the Rio Grande Valley and the people and the landscape of the beautiful borderlands. We also have pieces from Kate Strawther, Joseph Fox, Robert P. Moreira, Edward Santos Garza, James A. Bernsen, Noel Fuller, Jane Manaster, and Ulf Zimmerman.

   From all of us here at Texas Books in Review and the Center for the Study of the Southwest, we wish you a happy holiday season and a wonderful new year. A cheers to the Lone Star State and a toast to great books.