Best of Dallas® 2025

The theme for the Observer’s Best of Dallas 2025 issue,"Big D’s Banned Book Fair," is about celebrating books. We’re into words here, obviously — in newspapers, magazines, books, banned books, you name it. Words and the ideas they carry, even if we disagree with them, are some of the best things on the planet. So, in a time and place where some are trying to bury words and ideas they don’t like, 2025 seemed a good time to celebrate books.

Putting the issue together gave us a chance to talk to Deep Vellum Bookstore & Publishing Co. founder Will Evans, who told us that while Dallas is a literary city with a thriving culture and vision, what’s missing now is a narrative, something “the world can look at Dallas and know what it is.”

Too often, what the world hears about Dallas is about business and booming growth on the city’s suburban fringes, which is great and good, but it’s not Dallas. Not really.

“As a city, there’s no story of Dallas right now,” Evans said. “...The city is completely lacking in a narrative that unifies our city, that puts the city forth in a way that we can all believe in as citizens of the city and that we can go out into the world, have a voice, [and] the world can look at Dallas and know what is, what it means.”

That might be true. Dallas’ plot and theme might be fuzzy. But one thing publishing this Best of Dallas makes clear, Big D isn’t lacking interesting characters. You’ll find a sampling of them in here from both our writers and you, our readers: artists, entrepreneurs, restaurateurs, entertainers, athletes and influencers from all points on the map, each beavering away on their unique storylines, contributing to a place that’s alive with culture, ideas and joy.

Maybe someday someone will weave them all together into a grand narrative, The Great Dallas Novel of the 21st century (or more likely, many great novels). We’re not sure what it will say, but we’re certain it will be a great read … maybe even a best-seller.