Barry Siegel moves to UC Irvine

Literary journalism of the sort practiced by Pulitzer winner Barry Siegel of the L.A. Times national staff has its fans and detractors. Count the UC Irvine School of Humanities (and L.A. Observed) among the fans. Siegel has been named professor of English and the head of a new undergraduate degree program in literary journalism, the only such major in the University of California. Siegel won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize in feature writing for what the judges called "his humane and haunting portrait of a man tried for negligence in the death of his son, and the judge who heard the case." A reporter with the Times since 1976, beginning in the old View section, he won the paper's annual internal writing award on eight occasions. Siegel is the author of two non-fiction books and three suspense novels. Read the memo.