Chalk Diary

by Adam Schragin

Long regarded as one of the more livable and lively cities in the country, Austin's only constant is change, a state of play that has instigated endless and passionate arguments about whether that change is for the better, worse, neither or both. In a book that spans a little over a decade, one roving former freelance writer offers some insights about the city's future as told through a decade's worth of enlightening and occasionally just disgusting forays into subcultures both online and off. Adam Schragin's first collection Chalk Diary takes a temperature read of the times first through a lens of local music journalism - exploring death metal, psy-trance, and regular folk rock - and gradually expanding in scope to investigate both homegrown - and national - enclaves of white nationalism, populist and far left politics, and "radical feminism."