Last year, for the Fourth of July, Aaron Parsley and his family stayed at their river house on the Guadalupe — a one-story cabin on stilts about 50 yards from the Texas river. Parsley’s parents had bought the home because they wanted their grandkids to grow up spending time there.
Parsley, a senior editor for Texas Monthly, described his niece Rosemary as a “rambunctious, expressive, willful little girl with blond hair and blue eyes,” who knows Spanish and calls him Tío. And there was his 20-month-old nephew, Clay — “a towhead who’d just learned to say the words ‘boo’ and ‘yellow.’” Clay adored his big sister, loved trailing behind her.
They ate pizza. Parsley and his husband, Patrick, played hide-and-seek with their niece and nephew before bed.
Later that night, around 3 a.m., Parsley awoke to the sound of thunder and rain. Outside, the river was as high as the house’s deck, about 20 feet above the ground. The water kept rising, and so did their panic.
The river grew ferocious, lifting the structure off its pillars. The house broke apart.
Parsley and his family were caught in a flash flood. His sister, Alissa, fought for survival with her children.
The journalist later wrote about his family’s harrowing ordeal and how his young nephew did not survive. Clay’s body was later found 12 miles away.
On Monday, that piece won the Pulitzer Prize in Feature Writing. The board called “The River House Broke. We Rushed in the River” an “extraordinary personal account of survival and loss written days after the historic Central Texas floods that tore the writer’s house out from under him and his family, taking the life of his nephew.”
Reached by phone Tuesday, Parsley told Poynter that news of his Pulitzer win was overwhelming. He said he felt all the emotions at once.
“I’m really proud to be a part of Texas Monthly, and I’m really proud of my family, and I think that’s what I’m feeling most right now,” Parsley said. “It is complicated because of what this story is about, and my family still very much feels in the thick of it in terms of our grief over the loss of Clay. We miss him every day. It’s been a process, trying to separate the event from the work that I’ve done and that we’ve done here at Texas Monthly.”
Parsley said his family remains his top priority.
“The reaction that I got from my husband Patrick, my dad Clint, my sister Alissa, her husband Lance, and everybody else who is part of our family has been the best part. They’re happy for me. They’re proud, and that means everything.”
The day after the floods, on the heels of unimaginable pain, Parsley emailed Ross McCammon, editor-in-chief of Texas Monthly. The message was about 1,000 words, describing in sober language what had happened.
“It was a haunting email. I’ve never read anything like it. It felt like he just needed to get something down,” McCammon said. “And I was also struck by just how vivid the writing was in the email itself.”
McCammon called Parsley out of concern. They talked. McCammon encouraged him to take care of himself and his family.
Later, something tugged at Parsley. He wanted to write more.
“And then the next day, he called me, and he said, ‘I want to write about this,’” McCammon said. “And I needed to become an editor again. I just said, ‘OK.’”
Parsley said he wanted to write this story because he had a message to share about his sister, Alissa, and what happened to her on the morning of July 4, 2025, and what she was able to do. In the article, Parsley details how she fought to save her daughter, Rosemary.
“I knew that it was going to be a really difficult, long road ahead. And I knew that she would have a hard time — feelings of guilt and all kinds of difficult things come up. It was very clear to me that she was a hero and that she did everything that she could to save herself and save Rosemary,” he said. “I just wanted to put it out there that she’s a hero, and let people know what it was like to be there, and how difficult it was, and how scary it was, and how close we all came to dying.”
After deciding Parsley would move forward with writing the deeply personal account, McCammon contacted J.K. Nickell, Texas Monthly’s story director. They both readied themselves to receive a draft.
Parsley said he’s not typically a writer, although he has written in the past. He gave a lot of credit to McCammon, the story’s editor. “The conversations that we had — we talked about giving testimony, bearing witness, and just saying what happened,” Parsley said. “There was something about those early conversations, before I sat down to write, that gave me a real sense of freedom.”
Parsley said he had a lot of trust in McCammon and the team at Texas Monthly.
The magazine staff worked to replace the planned August issue cover story with Parsley’s story, which required a photographer to go out to the site. Parsley’s stepbrother accompanied the photographer.
A view of the remains of the Parsley family home. (Jordan Vonderhaar/Texas Monthly)
“Aaron was also not only reporting out the story with his family members, because they were all separated in the river — he was also helping our fact-checkers,” McCammon said. “I think that’s important for people to understand, that he wasn’t just writing. He was reporting and he was coordinating, and he was also supporting his family and his sister. And he wrote the story for his sister.”
Parsley said the stakes were high. This was about his family, right after the flood, during what he described as the most difficult days of their lives.
“This is the most important story that I’ve ever worked on,” McCammon said, “and I recognized from the very beginning what a monumental effort it was by Aaron Parsley.”
In that sense, McCammon added, the Pulitzer win was gratifying.
“It’s tricky because it’s such a sad story, so it didn’t feel celebratory. This was an important story, and I think this was an important award. This recognition feels very important.”
Parsley said he is proud of his family and their strength. Toward the end of the piece, he turns his gaze to his niece.
“Rosemary, I also want you to know that we had so much fun the day before the flood. We swam in the river until you wanted to jump from the rope swing,” Parsley wrote. “That came as no surprise, because ever since you took your first steps on your first birthday, you’ve been a fearless, observant, determined little girl.”
He wrote about how, that night, Clay had climbed onto the couch next to his sister and smiled.
“He was, as always, so happy to be by your side.”
He wanted to give his niece a picture of the beautiful day that they had before.
“It was just a joy to be with her and her brother, Clay. And I thought that that might get lost in everything that came next. So it was important to me to include some of that.”
Comments