Longtime Arizona Republic op-ed writer E.J. Montini didn’t grow up dreaming of seeing his name in the newspaper. The Pittsburgh native says he studied literature at Penn State because of his affinity for writers like John Irving and Kurt Vonnegut and as a “vacation” from his job at a steel mill. “I was the guy who memorized W.B. Yeats poems,” he says. “I liked them so much that I memorized them like prayers because I wanted to hear them inside my head.” Yet, it was news columnists who left the biggest impression on him. “The best ones are poets for real,” he says. “They know how to tell a story, and you can learn so much from them.” Phoenix has been learning from Montini since 1986, when he began writing weekly opinion pieces for the Republic, tackling everything from immigration and gun control to public art and historical preservation. The secret to his longevity? “The most important part of an opinion piece is how you write it, not what you say,” he says. “My job is to get you from the first paragraph to the last paragraph… If I get you that far, whether you think I’m an asshole or a genius, I have succeeded.” The proof is in the readers’ polls: He’s been voted Best Columnist (or Best Political Blog) every year we’ve included the category since the inaugural Best of the Valley issue in 2000. Despite the ephemeral nature of the news cycle, Montini’s love for local journalism has never wavered. “We’re the people drawing with chalk on a sidewalk. By the next day, people are going to walk all over it, it’s going to disappear and you’re going to have to do it again,” he says. “If that’s OK with you, then you’re going to be fine. And that’s always been OK with me.” azcentral.com