Regina Brett is Pulitzer finalist

Plain Dealer metro columnist Regina Brett was one of three finalists for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in Commentary, Columbia University announced Monday.

Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post won the Pulitzer Prize in commentary for his columns that explored the nation's complex economic ills. The other finalist was John Kass of the Chicago Tribune.

"We are all very proud of Regina - today and every day," said Plain Dealer Editor Susan Goldberg. "She is passionate about her work and about our community, and it comes through in every column she writes."

Judges recognized Brett for her "compassionate columns on alienated teenagers in a dangerous city neighborhood."

"I feel really blessed," Brett said. "There are so many great writers out there. To think that I ended up in the final three, it makes you feel giddy inside."

Brett wrote a series of columns that explored inner-city violence, poverty and hopelessness among black teenagers and young men.

She said journalists must never fear going to inner-city neighborhoods to give the people there a voice and to tell their stories.

"Last year took me to the heart of [the inner city], and I realized that these kids need our voice more than anybody," Brett said.

"While journalists cannot right every wrong, champion every cause or fix every problem, they can - through the written word - lift someone's burden for a day, make some elderly woman on a bus smile or let them know they are noticed by someone.

"As much as the Pulitzer is the hallmark of journalism, I think what I love the most is when somebody says they took my column and it's in their wallet," Brett said. "I have had people open their wallet and show me a corner of a column."

Future columns will build on last year's themes, Brett said, urging a united front to step forward to address urban violence and poverty that no one person or organization can solve.

Brett, who has been writing professionally since 1986, joined The Plain Dealer in 2000 and her columns appear Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. She also hosts a weekly radio show each Friday on WCPN FM/90.3, Cleveland's Natonal Public Radio affiliate.

In the mid-1980s, she covered City Hall for the Lorain Journal, before moving on to the Beacon Journal in Akron, where she covered business and breaking news. She began writing columns in 1994.

Plain Dealer columnist Connie Schultz won the Pulitzer Prize in commentary in 2005.

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