JAN REID is an award-winning journalist, novelist, and biographer. He first won acclaim for his magazine writing and his 1974 portrayal of Willie Nelson and other icons of Texas music, The Improbable Rise of Redneck Rock. His 2012 biography, Let the People In: The Life and Times of Ann Richards, has won hurrahs from former President Bill Clinton and Dan Rather, and the Houston Chronicle hailed it as one of the top ten nonfiction books of 2012. The Pulitzer Prize winner and Al Qaeda chronicler Lawrence Wright wrote: "Here is Ann Richards -- ribald, ferocious, vulnerable, and hilarious --the last Texas liberal, well remembered by her friend, Jan Reid. A classic Texas character captured by a classic Texas writer." Another Pulitzer Prize winning author, David Oshinsky, wrote in his review: "Reid is a clever stylist and a terrific storyteller. He has a fine grasp of Texas politics and no ideological ax to grind. As an account of Richards the politician in Lone Star surroundings, Let the People In is about as good as it gets." Reid's novel Comanche Sundown was honored as best fiction of 2011 by the Texas Institute of Letters. Stephen Harrigan, author of the best-selling novel Gates of the Alamo, wrote: "This book represents a summoning of all of Jan Reid's remarkable powers. He writes with a scholar's reach, a novelist's depth, and a native son's intuitive grasp. He has long been one of the best Texas writers ever, and Comanche Sundown is his masterpiece." Other recent books by Reid include The Bullet Meant for Me, a memoir of his recovery from a near-fatal shooting in Mexico City and his friendship with a world champion boxer, Jesus Chavez; and Texas Tornado: The Times and Music of Doug Sahm, an Oxford Magazine Music Book of the Year in 2010. Reid's versatile work has appeared in Texas Monthly, Esquire, GQ, Men's Journal, Slate, Garden & Gun, the New York Times, Northern Liberties Review, and the prestigious anthologies Best American Sportswriting and The Slate Diaries. He and his wife Dorothy Browne and their collie Gus live in Austin.