Michael Quintanilla

Michael Quintanilla
Writing Consultant

Michael Quintanilla prefers briefs over boxers, red over green salsa and “Dancing with the Stars” over “Survivor.”  He has two dogs, drives a Toyota Matrix, is running out of closet space, and often falls asleep (usually during the second episode of “Frasier” after an hour of “Will & Grace”) with his eyeglasses on. Recently, he has taken to ballroom dancing lessons and wearing colorful socks with Converse sneakers. Professionally, he is a senior features writer for the San Antonio Express-News, a Hearst Publishing Corp. newspaper. Before joining the Express-News, he wrote for the Southern California Living and Calendar sections, both features and lifestyle sections of the Los Angeles Times. He earned his journalism degree from Trinity University in his hometown, San Antonio, Texas, and has worked for the El Paso Herald-Post, Dallas Times-Herald and the Dallas Morning News before joining the Los Angeles Times in 1989. He has been named feature writer of the year by the California Newspaper Publishers Association. His work was included in the staff package that won the Los Angeles Times the Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the 1992 riots and again in 1994 for reporting on the Northridge Earthquake. His work has been extensively published in college textbooks and a human interest series he wrote became the basis for an NBC movie. When the terrorist attacks occurred on September 11, Quintanilla was in New York on another assignment and soon was covering the World Trade Center tragedy. He was one of the first reporters to work his way into the disaster scene and atop the rubble where he spent the next several days and nights. Quintanilla’s World Trade Center work won him the Times' breaking news award for 2001. Other awards for his work while at the Times included his coverage of President George Bush's inauguration with a daily series, often irreverent, called ``Dubya Takes D.C.' and several feature stories. While at the Times, Quintanilla also was a fashion beat reporter (New York, Milan and Paris). He also contributed to party coverage in Los Angeles and Hollywood, including the red carpet scene. He is well known for his human interest stories, profile writing and personal essays.  At the Express-News he is a pop culture writer with an emphasis on fashion and has helped in the creation of “niche” publications including “SPICE,” a women’s lifestyle magazine and “trends” a high-fashion broadsheet glossy.  He also has contributed greatly to new story forms in features as well as supplemental website forms for his stories. Additionally he is a contributing editor to “Latina” magazine and a regular on the NBC-affiliate’s morning lifestyle talk show where he is known as the show’s “fashion guru.”