FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE
PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING JOURNALIST TO DIRECT UCI'S NEW LITERARY
JOURNALISM PROGRAM
Los Angeles Times Veteran Barry Siegel Will Join School of Humanities
Irvine, Calif., Sept 8, 2003 - Barry Siegel, the Pulitzer Prize-winning
national correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, will join the UC
Irvine faculty as a professor of English in the School of Humanities.
Siegel, a Los Angeles Times reporter since 1976, will head the
undergraduate degree program in literary journalism, a new major in
UCI's highly ranked English and Comparative Literature Department.
"We're thrilled to have such a prominent practitioner of the craft head
our new literary journalism program," said Steven Mailloux, outgoing
chair of the department. "Barry Siegel is not only an extraordinary
writer of creative nonfiction, he is also a nationally recognized expert regularly called upon by his peers to speak on the art of writing."
UCI is the first UC campus to offer an undergraduate major in literary
journalism, and the program will build on the university's existing
strengths in literature, creative writing and literary theory. The new
major is for students interested in reading, studying and writing
nonfiction prose that transcends the limits of daily journalism.
"UCI's decision to create a literary journalism program is exciting and
imaginative, and I'm delighted at the chance to direct it," Siegel said. "This program offers a singular opportunity to study a type of
nonfiction prose that has evolved into a distinctive branch of
literature. I look forward to the prospect of helping students become
informed and effective writers."
In addition to winning the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing in 2002,
Siegel has earned numerous awards, including the PEN Center USA West
Literary Award in Journalism, in 2000 and 1987; the Best Writing Award
in 2001 from the California Newspaper Publishers Association; and the
Livingston Award for Young Journalists, national reporting, in 1983. He
is the author of two nonfiction volumes of literary journalism and three novels of legal suspense.
At the Los Angeles Times, Siegel began as a View section writer
(1976-78), then served briefly as a special assignment writer covering
the social impact of television (1979) before being named a national
correspondent in 1980. Prior to the Times, Siegel was the West Coast
news editor of Women's Wear Daily (1973-76) and a stringer for Newsweek
in its Los Angeles bureau (1973). Siegel has a master's in journalism
from Columbia University and graduated magna cum laude from Pomona
College with a bachelor's in English.
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Contact:
Lori Brandt
(949) 824-5484; lbrandt@uci.edu
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