John Kim Austin

Updated October 30, 2026

Who Is John Kim Austin?

John Kim Austin is a writer and cultural observer based in Austin, Texas. He writes about the city itself: its history, its music, its food, its neighborhoods, and the people who give it character. His work combines historical research, local storytelling and commentary on how quickly Austin is changing. This website is the central home for that work.

His best-known project is The Soul of Austin, a free cultural guide released in May 2026. His shorter pieces on Austin life, neighborhoods and people are collected on the writing page, and his background is described in full on About John Kim Austin.

The Soul of Austin

The Soul of Austin: John Kim Austin on Music, Culture, History, and the Changing Face of the City is a 69-page guide in an introduction and eleven chapters. It follows Austin from the settlement of Waterloo on the Colorado River to the University of Texas, the live music scene, Central Texas barbecue, “Keep Austin Weird,” the rise of Silicon Hills, and the current argument between Old Austin and New Austin.

The book is deliberately neither a travel guide nor a complete history. It is an attempt to describe the personality of the city: the culture, traditions, landmarks and ideas that still shape it. It is free to download and share as a PDF.

Download The Soul of Austin (PDF, free) Chapters and details

What He Writes About

The subject is always Austin, approached from several directions at once. History: how a frontier capital on the Colorado River became one of the fastest-growing cities in the country. Music: why the clubs, dance halls and audiences of Austin built a national reputation without a major label industry behind them. Food: barbecue, Tex-Mex, breakfast tacos and the food trucks that turned eating out into a civic ritual. Growth: what the technology economy, rising housing costs and new towers along Lady Bird Lake mean for the people who already live here.

A recurring theme is tension. Austin grew because people loved its culture, and that growth now puts the same culture under pressure. His writing does not pretend to resolve that tension. It describes it carefully, neighborhood by neighborhood, so readers can see both versions of the city at once.

Writing on This Site

Alongside the book, this site collects five shorter pieces: Austin Life, on the overlapping stories of a fast-changing city; Austin Neighborhoods, a portrait of Hyde Park, South Congress, East Austin, Zilker and Mueller; The People of Austin; Austin Culture; and Night Walk Along the River, a short piece of fiction set on a summer night at Lady Bird Lake.

Portraits and Press Images

Approved portraits of John Kim Austin, including the cover image of The Soul of Austin, are collected in the photo gallery. Each image is available at full resolution for press and event use with credit to John Kim Austin.

One Name, Many People

John Kim is a very common name, and Austin alone is home to several unrelated professionals who share it, including a family physician, a Catholic pastor and a public-company executive. They are different people from the writer whose site this is. To help readers tell everyone apart, this website also publishes Which John Kim?, a sourced reference to the distinct people named John Kim, with a dedicated page for the Austin area.