Gather 'Round: Gatherings in Texas and the Southwest

— Vol. 73: of Publications of the Texas Folklore Society

Published: December, 2025  Pages: 320  Features: Notes. Index.

Compiled by members of the Texas Folklore Society, this collection of pieces that focus on gatherings of all kinds ranges from personal reflections to scholarly analyses. Some authors discuss the place that gatherings have in marking all stages of life, from birth to death, while others consider gatherings based on special interests, such as crafting and music. more... about Gather 'Round: Gatherings in Texas and the Southwest

Right Back Where I Started: A Memoir in Music

— Vol. 19: of North Texas Lives of Musicians Series

Published: June, 2025  Pages: 304  Features: 47 b&w illus. Index.

Right Back Where I Started is a musical odyssey of the heart, mind, and spirit, a journey from the innocent Pacific Northwest of the 1960s to China, Slovenia, Italy, Romania, the Middle East, and countless locations in America, crossing paths with the likes of Renee Fleming, Bill Clinton, James Earl Jones, Maya Angelou, and William Shatner. more... about Right Back Where I Started: A Memoir in Music

On the Way to the Sky: Remembering Bob Brookmeyer

— Vol. 20: of North Texas Lives of Musicians Series

Published: June, 2025  Pages: 272  Features: 35 b&w illus. Notes. Bib. Index.

In On the Way to the Sky: Remembering Bob Brookmeyer, author Michael Stephans has created a rich, multifaceted paean to jazz icon Bob Brookmeyer, the much-beloved musical genius who passed away in 2011, four days short of his 82nd birthday. more... about On the Way to the Sky: Remembering Bob Brookmeyer

Barbs, Bullets, and Blood: The 1880s Texas Barbed Wire Wars

Published: June, 2025  Pages: 448  Features: 50 b&w illus. Notes. Bib. Index.

In 1874 Joseph Glidden patented and manufactured the nation’s first barbed wire, and the next year Henry Sanborn came to Texas selling Glidden’s wire to cattlemen. Sales increased each year, and in 1883 Sanborn sold Texas ranchers one million dollars’ worth of barbed wire, but free-range cattle advocates and homesteaders revolted against the barbed wire fences; more than half of Texas’s counties experienced fence cutting. In the eyes of some Texans, barbed-wire fences stopped cattle drives, interfered with homesteading, and wrecked the state’s economy, but the act of fence cutting precipitated extreme levels of violence between the ranchers and the fence cutters. Fence cutting occurred as far north as Montana, but no state suffered the magnitude of fence cutting and violence as in Texas. more... about Barbs, Bullets, and Blood: The 1880s Texas Barbed Wire Wars

In the Days of Billy the Kid: The Lives and Times of José Chávez y Chávez, Juan Patrón, Martín Chávez, and Yginio Salazar

Published: May, 2025  Pages: 640  Features: 108 b&w illus. Notes. Bib. Index.

The legend of Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War remains prominent in the annals of American frontier history, but for men like José Chávez y Chávez, Juan Patrón, Martín Chávez, and Yginio Salazar, it was merely one famous epoch in a much broader struggle. The Hispanos of frontier New Mexico spent decades engaging in various forms of resistance against the corruption, exploitation, and violent oppression that frequently plagued their homeland following the conclusion of the Mexican-American War in 1848. more... about In the Days of Billy the Kid: The Lives and Times of José Chávez y Chávez, Juan Patrón, Martín Chávez, and Yginio Salazar

War Studies Journal 2

Published: May, 2025  Pages: 288 

The War Studies Journal is a scholarly venue for those who want to write about the big topics of warfare, strategy, campaigns, battles, theory, military revolutions, and technological change. It is a journal for scholars who wish to read the best of contemporary scholarship and debate military history in a peer-reviewed forum that will appear annually in print and online. The objective of the journal’s editorial board is to publish cutting-edge military history from antiquity to the contemporary period that informs the past, present, and future. The goal is to create a space for the serious discussion of military history, including its diplomatic, strategic, operational, tactical, and technological aspects, both chronologically and thematically. more... about War Studies Journal 2

Chance of Lightning

— Vol. 32: of Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry

Published: April, 2025  Pages: 80 

Chance of Lightning is a precarious love letter that wagers mystery against easy answers and unflinching vulnerability against inevitable misfortune. Sonnets, prose poems, and experiments in lyrical verse create a world of imaginary lottery winners—from a man who invests his windfall in a dove-release business to a woman who tracks down every person she’s ever kissed—and explore themes of birth, death, loss, and survival. more... about Chance of Lightning

The Fifty-Year Texas Road Trip: On Assignment from Earth to Uncertain

— Vol. 2: of Seeing Texas Series

Published: April, 2025  Pages: 224  Features: 228 color, 6 b&w illus.

Ride shotgun with writer-photographer Randy Mallory on his fifty-year road trip exploring the endlessly fascinating people and places of Texas. The fourth-generation Texan spent a five-decade career traveling every part of the Lone Star State on assignments for statewide magazines and tourism agencies. In more than two hundred photos and four reflective essays, his first photo retrospective offers what he found. At the turn of every page—just like the rounding of every bend—there are delightful and surprising places: a thunderhead billowing behind a spinning Ferris wheel, a Volkswagen Beetle hung from a giant oak, a steam-powered riverboat gliding through mossy swamps, and yard art of a pregnant woman playing electric guitar. Meet the proud and diverse people he encountered: an organic farmer with a UFO museum, rural church members at a foot-washing ceremony, an adventurer riding the highway in a wind-powered sail trike, and five US presidents sharing the same stage. more... about The Fifty-Year Texas Road Trip: On Assignment from Earth to Uncertain

Robert E. Howard: The Life and Times of a Texas Author

Published: March, 2025  Pages: 592  Features: 49 b&w illus. Notes. Bib. Index.

Robert E. Howard (1906–1936) is most widely known today as the creator of Conan the Cimmerian, more popularly referred to as Conan the Barbarian. However, he also wrote across a wide array of genres for the pulp magazines of the 1920s and 1930s, including westerns, sports stories (boxing), adventures, supernatural horror, and even humor. Howard also created many other popular characters such as King Kull, Bran Mak Morn, Solomon Kane, Steve Costigan, and Breckenridge Elkins. More importantly, he created two specific subgenres of fiction: sword and sorcery (sometimes referred to as heroic fantasy) and weird westerns. more... about Robert E. Howard: The Life and Times of a Texas Author

Warriors for Social Justice and Equality: Maria Jiménez of Houston and Mexican American Activists

— Vol. 12: of Al Filo: Mexican American Studies Series

Published: February, 2025  Pages: 352  Features: 16 b&w illus. Notes. Bib. Index.

Warriors for Social Justice and Equality examines the contributions of Mexican American activists to the nation’s democratic values by concentrating on the activism of Maria Jiménez (1950–2020) in Houston, Texas. Linda J. Quintanilla describes Jiménez’s lifelong battle against injustice, be it racist, sexist, or anti-immigrant animus. The Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride in 2003, only one of her many impressive achievements, delighted her the most. The experience introduced its participants, undocumented immigrants, to historic places and African American activists and descendants from the Civil Rights Movement. more... about Warriors for Social Justice and Equality: Maria Jiménez of Houston and Mexican American Activists

Fort Worth Characters 2

— Vol. 10: of Texas Local

Published: February, 2025  Pages: 400  Features: 68 b&w illus. Notes. Bib. Index.

Fort Worth Characters 2 is a sequel to Fort Worth Characters (UNT Press, 2009) by Richard F. Selcer, the preeminent historian of Fort Worth. This book continues the theme of human-interest stories of twenty-five more characters pulled from Fort Worth history. Some, like Frank James, were already famous when they came to Fort Worth. Others, like “Stutterin’ Sam” Dowell, were “discovered” here before going on to fame and fortune on the national stage. more... about Fort Worth Characters 2

Applied Research Methods in Criminal Justice and Criminology

Published: February, 2025  Pages: 384  Features: 10 figs. Notes. Bib. Index.

The primary objective of this book is to help readers become educated consumers of research. It provides a practical, applied, and user-friendly approach to research methods by consistently applying the concepts learned to real-life examples of research. more... about Applied Research Methods in Criminal Justice and Criminology

Nightmare in the Pacific: The World War II Saga of Artie Shaw and His Navy Band

Published: February, 2025  Pages: 288  Features: 25 b&w illus. Maps. Notes. Bib. Index.

Artie Shaw took his clarinet to war, abandoning civilian celebrity to lead World War II’s most colorful navy band on an island-hopping odyssey that raised military morale but brought him into dark waters. more... about Nightmare in the Pacific: The World War II Saga of Artie Shaw and His Navy Band

Fiestas in Laredo: Matachines, Quinceañeras, and George Washington’s Birthday

— Vol. 30: of Texas Folklore Society Extra Book

Published: December, 2024  Pages: 352  Features: 27 b&w, 8 color illus. Notes. Bib. Index.

This book celebrates the many types of fiestas found in the border community of Laredo, Texas. Told from an insider’s perspective and blending memoir, ethnography, and a folkloristic analysis, the author explores the meaning of the celebrations for the community. more... about Fiestas in Laredo: Matachines, Quinceañeras, and George Washington’s Birthday

Where to Carry the Sound

— Vol. 23: of Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction

Published: November, 2024  Pages: 224 

The stories in Where to Carry the Sound center on characters excavating their own lives: unearthing family secrets, exploring inherited silences, and rediscovering what might have seemed lost to them. Wherever these characters find themselves—including brewing bootleg liquor in Prohibition-era Bombay, finding remnants of a new language at an archaeological dig in Andhra Pradesh, seeking mirages above the Arctic Circle, or setting up an outpost on the moon—each seeks to reconcile a past continually bleeding into the present and to forge a path of belonging to carry them into the future. more... about Where to Carry the Sound

Tubby: Raymond O. Barton and the US Army, 1889-1963

— Vol. 24: of North Texas Military Biography and Memoir Series

Published: November, 2024  Pages: 512  Features: 39 b&w illus. 6 maps. Notes. Bib. Index.

Entering West Point from central Oklahoma, Raymond O. Barton’s prowess on the football field and wrestling team earned him the nickname “Tubby,” an appellation used by his friends and fellow officers for the rest of his life. Based on personal letters and documents, this biography explores Barton’s military career from his days as a cadet through thirty-seven years of military service, culminating with his command in World War II of the 4th Infantry Division during the US Army’s campaign in France. From the inside readers have a picture of officership during the intense days of training and expansion on the eve of World War II. Finally, thanks to the discovery of his war diary, we have a close-up view of his senior leadership as he trained in England for the landing on Utah Beach on June 6, 1944. more... about Tubby: Raymond O. Barton and the US Army, 1889-1963

The Bird Cage Theater: The Curtain Rises on Tombstone, Arizona’s National Treasure

Published: October, 2024  Pages: 352  Features: 75 b&w illus. Notes. Bib. Index.

Tombstone, Arizona, is forever associated with Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Doc Holliday, and the legendary OK Corral gunfight that made it a cultural symbol of the Old West. The town’s most iconic and storied original building is the Bird Cage Theater—a stunning example of late nineteenth-century variety theaters that were a staple in entertainment around the globe. The modest interior that was once filled with orchestra music, cigar smoke, laughter and whistles, and cheers and jeers is now an empty canvas for the echoes of the past. more... about The Bird Cage Theater: The Curtain Rises on Tombstone, Arizona’s National Treasure

Murder on the Largo: Henry Coleman and New Mexico’s Last Frontier

— Vol. 23: of A. C. Greene Series

Published: October, 2024  Pages: 240  Features: 27 b&w illus. Map. Notes. Bib. Index.

In western New Mexico in 1905 there rode a notorious outlaw from the Mexican border named Henry Coleman. With a Colt .45 strapped to his hip, Coleman (alias Street Hudspeth from the well-to-do Texas family) came to be either despised as a deceitful rustler and ruthless murderer or admired as a man of honor and great courage, a popular and charismatic cowman who was fast with a gun. No one seemed indifferent. more... about Murder on the Largo: Henry Coleman and New Mexico’s Last Frontier

The Best American Newspaper Narratives, Volume 11

Published: September, 2024  Pages: 320 

This anthology collects the nine winners of the 2023 Best American Newspaper Narrative Writing Contest at UNT’s Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference. First place winner: Jennifer Berry Hawes for “Captive No More: One SC Man’s Journey to Freedom after Years in Modern-Day Slavery,” about how a white restaurant manager held an intellectually disabled Black man in slavery-like conditions for almost six years (Post and Courier, Charleston, SC). Second place: Andrea Ball and Will Carless for “American Flashpoint: A Drag Show, a Protest and a Line of Guns” (USA Today). Third place: Thomas Curwen for “A World Gone Mad” (Los Angeles Times). more... about The Best American Newspaper Narratives, Volume 11

Globalizing the Lower Rio Grande: European Entrepreneurs in the Borderlands, 1749–1881

— Vol. 2: of Randolph B. "Mike" Campbell Series

Published: September, 2024  Pages: 272  Features: 3 b&w illus. 8 maps. Notes. Bib. Index.

Often obscured in the history of the nineteenth-century US-Mexico borderlands, European-born entrepreneurs played a definitive role in pushing the Lower Rio Grande borderlands into Atlantic markets. Though they were often stymied by mismanagement, notions of ethnic and cultural superiority, and eruptions of violence, these entrepreneurs persistently attempted to remake the region into a modern commercial utopia. more... about Globalizing the Lower Rio Grande: European Entrepreneurs in the Borderlands, 1749–1881

Duval County Tejanos: An Epic Narrative of Liberty and Democracy

— Vol. 9: of Texas Local

Published: September, 2024  Pages: 416  Features: 14 b&w illus. 2 maps. Notes. Bib. Index.

In Texas, to hear the words “Duval County” evokes Archie and George Parr, politics, and corruption. But this does not represent the full truth about this South Texas county and its Tejano citizens. Duval County Tejanos showcases Tejanos engaged in community life: they organized politically, cultivated land, and promoted agriculture, livestock raising, the local economy, churches, schools, patriotic celebrations, and social activities. more... about Duval County Tejanos: An Epic Narrative of Liberty and Democracy

Tracking the Texas Ranger Historians

Published: September, 2024  Pages: 400  Features: Notes. Bib. Index.

The first systematic inquiry into the Texas Rangers did not begin until 1935 with Walter Prescott Webb’s publication The Texas Rangers. Since then numerous works have appeared on the Rangers, but no volume has been published before that covers the various historians of the Rangers and their approaches to the topic. Editors Bruce A. Glasrud and Harold J. Weiss Jr. gather essays that profile individual historians of the Texas Rangers, explore themes and issues in Ranger history, and comprise archival research, biographies, and autobiographies. more... about Tracking the Texas Ranger Historians

Desire to Serve: The Autobiography of Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson

Published: June, 2024  Pages: 464  Features: 35 b&w illus. Notes. Index.

Watch an interview on Fox 4 Here & Now with Cheryl Brown Wattley, author of Desire to Serve more... about Desire to Serve: The Autobiography of Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson

The Colfax County War: Violence and Corruption in Territorial New Mexico

— Vol. 22: of A. C. Greene Series

Published: June, 2024  Pages: 256  Features: 54 b&w illus. 2 maps. Notes. Bib. Index.

When New Mexico became part of the United States, the territory contained 295 land grants, the largest of these being the Maxwell Land Grant. The size and boundaries of the grant were disputed, with some believing that much of the land was public domain. Settlers on this land were fought not only by the land grant owners but also by a group of corrupt politicians and lawyers— known as the Santa Fe Ring (most notably Thomas Catron and Stephen Elkins)—who tried to use the situation for personal profit and land acquisition. more... about The Colfax County War: Violence and Corruption in Territorial New Mexico

• 2024 Western Heritage Awards - Best Nonfiction Book

Theoria 28: Historical Aspects of Music Theory

Published: June, 2024  Pages: 176 

Theoria is an annual peer-reviewed journal on all aspects of the history of music theory distributed by the University of North Texas Press. It includes critical articles representing the current stage of research and editions of newly discovered or mostly unknown theoretical texts with translation and commentary. Analytical articles on recent or unknown repertory and methods are also published, as well as review articles on recent secondary literature and textbooks. more... about Theoria 28: Historical Aspects of Music Theory