RIP John Nova Lomax

A local legend, gone too soon.

In a go-go town, Lomax coveted a slower and reflective pace. He told Houston stories that otherwise would have gone untold, a Sig Byrd for the 21st century. Within the state, his work appeared in the Houston Press, Texas Monthly, Houstonia and Texas Highways, offering a perspective that balanced reverence and skepticism.

His connection to the city felt natural, symbiotic and whole. He understood Houston’s history, its eccentricities, its excesses and its deficiencies.

Lomax wrote books on dive bars and crime in Houston. His writing over the past 20 years was an outgrowth of the family business. Lomax was a seventh-generation Texan. He was also a fourth-generation documentarian in a family of famed folklorists, musicologists and writers.

John Nova Lomax died of liver and kidney failure on May 22, according to family. He was 53 years old. 

I have a handful of friends and acquaintances who knew him personally and are mourning his loss. I was unfortunately never lucky enough to meet John Nova Lomax in person; however, through many years of reading his prolific and luminescent writing, I felt like I knew him well. I am very saddened by his passing.

I greatly enjoyed reading his articles in the Houston Press (where I first encountered his talent for words), Texas Monthly and Houstonia, as well as the writings he made available on his Substack (I regret not becoming a subscriber). His takes on crawfish or local Kroger stores or the botched Rita evacuation were inspirations for some of my posts on this blog. I appreciated his passion for music (even if I didn't always agree with his tastes), food, and the idiosyncrasies of Houston. Lomax hiked the city's streets (the Press has reassembled his "Sole of Houston" series) and investigated its dive bars. He wrote an unflinching account of his own mother and her struggles with addiction (a struggle that he, unfortunately, would share). For Lomax, no subject was off limits and no person was unworthy of his writing.

The Press's Margaret Downing says that Lomax "chronicled Houston and its people and Texans across the state with love and compassion balanced by a keen eye for hypocrisy and humor" and that his writings "will last long past their publication dates." Culturemap's Steven Devadanam writes that "Lomax deftly and superbly chronicled the weird gumbo that is life in Houston and Texas at a time when, quite frankly, it just wasn’t that cool to do so." Joe Nick Patoski of Texas Highways remembers that Lomax "enjoyed lifting the rug, observing, and writing about whatever was going on," while Texas Monthly's Mimi Swartz describes Lomax as "one of those writers who, if he was interested in something, could make you interested in it too." Houston Public Media's Michael Hagerty writes that "Lomax's facility with words about the Lone Star state came naturally, as a seventh-generation Texan, and fourth-generation of Lomaxes devoted to writing, music, and folklore" and provides a link to some of Lomax's appearances on the Houston Matters radio show.

Houston is poorer for John Nova Lomax's passing. May he rest in peace.