Steven A. Holmes

Steven A. Holmes, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist with an extensive background as a reporter and editor at leading news organizations including Time Magazine, The New York Times, and CNN, brings his expertise in reporting and editing to craft a compelling narrative of three individuals navigating the profound adversities of war, racism, the Holocaust, and ultimately finding a path toward one another. 

The air outside was frigid, but I was toasty inside the library at City College of New York as I contemplated my future – or at least the next semester. 

Finalizing my second-semester junior year schedule, I just needed one elective that fit with my established routine: classes in the morning, afternoon study sessions, and evenings spent working as a New York City cab driver—a job I enjoyed. 

I thumbed through the course catalogue, vainly looking for a class that would be interesting and would fit my needs. Finally, I noticed one — Principles of Journalism, essentially Journalism 101. Hmm, I thought. As a Political Science major, I basically tried to keep up with the news. I read three newspapers a day and a couple of news magazines each week. So, I felt delving into the world of journalism would not seem like entering a foreign country. 

And I noticed that this class was scheduled for 9 am! Perfect! 

I did not know it at the time, but that class’s perfect scheduling alignment led to what would become a 45-year career in a profession that I grew to love.  

Evidence of my ability in this area came quickly. The professor of this course, an esteemed man named Irwin Rosenthal took note of me after three writing exercises. He asked me to stay after class one day. 

“Son, you seem to have shown some writing promise,” he said to me. “Have you ever considered a career in journalism?” 

“No sir, I hadn’t,” I answered truthfully. 

“Well, you should,” he said.  

Prof. Rosenthal’s influence on my career didn’t just entail encouragement. He soon got me a job working as a Desk Assistant (basically a copy boy) at WCBS-TV News, the local CBS Owned and Operated station. There I got to work around some amazing journalists who made names for themselves both locally and nationally – Lyn Sher, Maureen Bunyan, Ralph Penza, John Stossel, Chris Borgan,  

One day, one of the reporters, J.J. Gonzalez, told me about a special program for minority journalists that was run every summer out of Columbia University. The Michelle Clark Fellowship Program, as it was known then, provided six weeks of intensified training in reporting, writing, and editing. Afterwards, the program found jobs for its graduates at newspapers and television stations. We were taught and mentored by some trail blazing journalists including Robert C. Maynard who went on to be owner and publisher of the Oakland Tribune, John Dotson, Jr., later the publisher of the Akron Beacon Journal and Leroy “Roy” Aarons who founded the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association.   

After short stints at a suburban, New York paper, a wire service and the Atlanta Constitution, I was recruited by Time Magazine and assigned to its Chicago Bureau. My decade at Time’s bureaus in Chicago, Los Angeles, London, and Washington greatly broadened my reporting – though not my writing — experience. I covered politics, education, riots, airplane crashes, financial markets, agriculture policy, and medicine, The 1984 Olympics, the Supreme Court, the Justice Department, among other topics. 

With the New York Times I covered presidential campaigns, the State Department, Congress and race and demographics. I also played a key role on a team of reporters that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for our series on race relations.   

At CNN I was a standards editor. That meant that I had to approve scripts, video, photographs, making sure they met criteria related to fairness, balance, and taste. The job essentially meant I spent a lot of time telling reporters and show producers, “Sorry, you can’t do that.” I often thought I should print up business cards that read, “Steve Holmes; professional buzz killer.” 

In retirement, I spend most of my time playing golf (badly), gardening, spoiling my two granddaughters and writing my first novel! 

It’s been a wonderful life.