In 1993 she received the prize of the Círculo de Lectores' 4th Literary Contest for her story "Rimara", and then began her essay work with the publication of the book Lenguaje femenino, lenguaje masculino. From 1995 to 2005 she was editor of the newspaper El Mundo. After writing editorials for years in the Opinion section, she moved on to International, where she was sent to Mauritania, Algeria, Kosovo, and to cover elections in Nicaragua and Sweden. She also worked in the Closing section, and wrote opinion articles and literary criticism in "The Sphere of Books". She has written for Spanish magazines such as Cuadernos de Periodistas, Ínsula, Leer, and GEO, and for foreign media, such as the BBC program Europe and the Swedish newspaper Expressen. In 2005 she published the biography Federica Montseny, una anarquista en el poder and won the for Lenguas en guerra. Lozano was an ABC columnist from 2005 to 2010. She is currently a columnist for El País, where she publishes monthly, and contributes to the regional press of the Vocento Group through a biweekly column, as well as to the thought magazines Claves and ', and the online publications Fronteras and Cuarto poder. On Thursdays she participates in the talk show'. She teaches literary journalism at the Hotel Kafka writers' school, and a class on column writing in ABCs master's program. She has participated in the discussion and tertulia shows Enfoque and Los Desayunos, both on Televisión Española, as well as El debate, and ' and '. She has collaborated on collective works such as the Academia de la Historia's Diccionario biográfico español and the Autonomous University of Barcelona's Diccionario biobibliográfico del exilio literario de 1939. She contributed the prologue and several notes to the compilation book Es lo que hay de Rosa Díez. From the general elections of 20 November 2011 until 16 October 2015, she served as a member of the Congress of Deputies for UPyD. During this period she was the party's spokesman in the Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation for Development, and Defense committees, as well as in the Joint Commissions for the European Union and for the parliamentary control of the RTVE Corporation and its partners. In addition she was assigned to the commissions of Education and Sport, Culture, Employment and Social Security, Health and Social Services, Constitution, and Statute of the Deputies. On 11 July 2015 she lost her party's primaries by 57 votes, receiving 40% to her rival Andrés Herzog's 43%. After losing at UPyD's Extraordinary Congress, Irene Lozano had conversations with the organizational secretary of Citizens,, which could have culminated with her integration into the party, on the condition that she be able to actively continue in politics. However, Citizens prevented Lozano's entry, citing her especially combative attitude towards the idea of seeking a pact when the two political forces engaged in negotiations. She continued to be UPyD's deputy until 16 October 2015, when she resigned from her seat and her party affiliation in order to run in the general election of 20 December 2015. She ran as an independent in position number 4 of the PSOE list to the Congress of Deputies for the district of Madrid. In addition, she joined the PSOE Experts' Committee, chosen by Pedro Sánchez to advise him on the preparation of the electoral program, as an expert in "democratic regeneration". On 28 April 2016, Lozano announced that she would not reappear on the PSOE lists in the following general elections, citing professional reasons. In early October 2018, it was announced that Lozano would be appointed Secretary of State for Global Spain, a newly created secretariat that would replace the High Commissioner of the Government for Brand Spain. Her appointment was completed on 13 October 2018.
