The Never Satisfied Steve Lopez

There are mostly men in my column writing class.  This realization led me to the idea of finding a successful female columnist that was in the field of arts and culture or one who is/was a great human interest writer.  The assignment to find a female columnist who's work I respect and enjoy was difficult to say the least.  There are a plethora of talented writers, many of which are successful and have broken the "glass ceiling", in reference to gender.  

In all the reading I did searching for a writer that came to my attention, I suddenly remembered why I chose to go into journalism in the first place.  

It might seem like a total cliche at this point to write about columnist, Steve Lopez of the Los Angeles Times, but this well-known writer continues to change the world with inspirational and surprisingly human stories. His page on latimes.com is filled with countless follow-up pieces to a few pressing issues.  It seems Lopez cannot delve deep enough in any niche he pursues and will not quit until his work ignites action.

In case, for some strange reason, you are not familiar with Mr. Lopez, he is the writer of a column that focused on the life of Nathanial Anthony Ayers; an incredibly talented and incredibly homeless musician. It was this very column and later novel that inspired the film The Soloist (2009).  Jaime Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. played the leading roles in the film.

Lopez began writing with the Los Angeles Times in 2001 after writing for various Time, Inc. publications, including Time, Sports Illustrated, Life and Entertainment Weekly.  He recently earned an honorary doctorate degree from San Jose State University

It's not ridiculous to assume that anyone in Lopez' position, a columnist-turned Hollywood film writer would simply take the money and run off to the Bahamas after such unimaginable success.  Fortunately, Lopez did not take that route and is still very much a committed columnist for the Los Angeles Times.

Although Steve Lopez is not a female columnist that covers arts and culture, he was the first to inspire me to become part of whatever I was pursuing as opposed to simply observing and reporting.  I consider Lopez a literary journalist because of his ability to tell a true story and not only make it seem like a movie, but to actually create a film, both about Lopez and Ayers.

Aside from spending time in "Skid Row" in Downtown Los Angeles with motive to expose an overlooked underground, Lopez covers everything from politics to education to profiles of dying people.  Recently, he wrote his experience with a woman who emailed him about her readiness to die. The story seems straight forward enough, but what makes this work exceptional are the lessons learned by Lopez.  The story can be read here.

It seems the political activist/human interest route taken by Lopez serves as topics that feed a wide variety of audiences and inspire many to become involved, essentially in changing the world.  What good is journalism  if it doesn't demand change? As a new columnist, I'm definitely taking notes.

A description of the column
How often it is published
The educational background of the writer
The professional background of the writer
What drew you to want to profile the columnist
What are the attributes of the columnist that you like the most - and perhaps dislike