Kristen Steenbeeke

Jan 3, 2025 | texasmonthly.com | Kristen Steenbeeke

WHO: A talking raven. WHAT: That raven’s unlikely friendship with an Austin barista. WHY IT’S SO GREAT: This raven is no “grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore,” as Edgar Allan Poe wrote—in fact, it’s been a delightful presence for downtown Austin workers of late. When I meet Jonathan Harris outside the downtown cafe where he works, he’s holding a bright orange whistle and a clicker. These are the tools he uses to beckon his friend, a juvenile raven he simply calls the Bird.

Nov 14, 2024 | texasmonthly.com | Kristen Steenbeeke |Rose Cahalan

Moo Deng this, Moo Deng that. Texas has its own celebrity pygmy hippo now, not to mention many live video streams of animals that aren’t asleep when we’re all awake. I write this as I stare into the night vision Moo Deng live stream, where a spider has taken up residence on the camera lens at two in the morning Thai time.

Sep 23, 2024 | texasmonthly.com | Kristen Steenbeeke |Rose Cahalan

Christopher Brown has urged me to take a long and meandering walk. Or, at least, his new book, A Natural History of Empty Lots, has inspired one. Sadly, the empty lots I find in my East Austin neighborhood, unlike his, seem not to have been empty for long. One, where it appears a house used to be and will again be soon, contains evidence of humans but hasn’t yet been taken over by plants and animals, as have many of the places Brown describes.

Sep 9, 2024 | texasmonthly.com | Kristen Steenbeeke |Rose Cahalan

Perhaps through a combination of sheer size and pioneer spirit, Texas, of all the states, seems to feature the highest concentration of truly absurd town names. About a year ago, I made a categorized list of some of the best, with food (Oatmeal), states of mind (Uncertain), concepts (Utopia), things (Telephone), names of other cities and countries (Scotland), phrases (Jot ’Em Down), and, most important, guns (Cut and Shoot) and guys (Tom Bean) as the main groupings.

Aug 13, 2024 | texasmonthly.com | Kristen Steenbeeke

WHO: Texas’s 2024 poet laureate, Amanda Johnston. WHAT: The Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship for Johnston’s project, Praisesong for the People: Poems Celebrating the Heart and Soul of Texas. WHY IT’S SO GREAT: Poetry is often confined to the hallowed halls of academia, and Johnston, our state’s newest poet laureate, wants to expand its reach to the halls where most Texans experience life.