Ann Powers is the new chief pop music critic for the Los Angeles Times. The former pop critic for the New York Times and editor at the Village Voice lives in Seattle, where she is senior critic at Blender. The memo:

To: The Staff
From: John Montorio, Associate Editor
Lennie LaGuire, Deputy Features Editor

We would like to announce an addition to our superb roster of critics: Ann Powers, whose writing on popular music and society has made her a critical force to reckon with on both coasts.

Ann, currently a Seattle-based senior critic at Blender, will join our staff late next month as our chief pop music critic. She is the author of "Weird Like Us: My Bohemian America" and is co-author, with the artist, of "Tori Amos Piece By Piece: A Portrait of the Artist," which came out last year. She also was co-editor of "Rock She Wrote: Women Write about Rock, Pop, and Rap."

From 1997 until 2001, Ann was a pop critic for the New York Times. Before that, she was an editor for the Village Voice from 1993 until 1996. Her work has appeared in most music publications and many anthologies. Until May of last year, she was a curator at the Experience Music Project in Seattle.

She is married to Eric Weisbard, a music critic and editor, and they have a 2-year-old daughter, Rebecca Brooklyn.

We're delighted to welcome Ann into the House that Hilburn built (and Bob, by the way, played a key role in the scouting that led us to her.) When she comes aboard, it will mark the first time in more than a decade that our entertainment and arts reports have had a full complement of critics. We're confident she will help lead us into the next phase of pop music greatness.

Longtime pop critic Robert Hilburn retired from full-time status at the paper in January. He still contributes occasional pieces.