Steve Lopez is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, where he first wrote a series of enormously popular columns about Nathaniel Ayers.

Before joining the L.A. Times, Lopez wrote for Time, Sports Illustrated, Life, and Entertainment Weekly. Prior to working for Time, Inc., Lopez was a columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer, San Jose Mercury News and Oakland Tribune. His work has won numerous national journalism awards for column writing and magazine reporting.

A California native, Lopez is the author of three novels and a book of non-fiction, The Soloist: A Lost Dream, An Unlikely Friendship, and The Redemptive Power of Music. The book is based on columns Lopez wrote for the Times about his friendship with a downtown Los Angeles musician.

Lopez is married and has two sons and a daughter. (Adapted from the publisher and L.A. Times.)

The author's website:  http://www.stevelopezonline.com