About the Author

Joe Nick Patoskiwrites about Texas and Texans. A former cab driver and staff writer for Texas Monthly magazine, and one-time reporter at the Austin American-Statesman, he has authored and co-authored biographies of Willie Nelson, Selena, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and the Dallas Cowboys, and collaborated with photographer Laurence Parent on books about the Texas Mountains, the Texas Coast, and Big Bend National Park. He wrote essays for the 2015 book Homegrown- Austin Music Posters, 1968-1982 and Conjunto by John Dyer with Juan Tejeda. He has covered conservation in the book Generations on the Land- A Conservation Legacy and the state religion of Texas in the book Texas High High School Football- More Than the Game.

Reviews

The 1995 murder of 23-year-old singer Selena has had a continuing impact, especially on the Hispanic community. Patoski, a senior editor at Texas Monthly, seems well acquainted with the world of Tejano music and the part Selena played in it, and his biography is more objective than other works on Selena. Though neither Selena's enigmatic father nor her other family members cooperated with Patoski, many others in the Tejano music world did. Patoski weaves Selena's story into the broader context of the music business and the changing bicultural scene of which she was a part, making this the best biography available of the singer. Highly recommended for popular music collections and for libraries serving Mexican American communities. Libraries interested in providing something on Selena in Spanish may be interested in Himilce Novas and Rosemary Silva's bilingual Remembering Selena (St. Martin's, 1995), a well-illustrated but highly subjective treatment for a less scholarly audience. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/95.]‘James E. Ross, WLN, Seattle, Wash.