Alex Kotlowitz

Alex Kotlowitz is an award-winning author, journalist, filmmaker, and Professor at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, where he has taught since 1999. For four decades, his work has explored deeply personal stories of struggle, perseverance, violence, inequality, and life in America's urban communities. He is the author of four books, including An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago, which chronicles the lives of individuals and families affected by gun violence in Chicago and received the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize. His national bestseller, There Are No Children Here, was selected by the New York Public Library as one of the 150 most important books of the twentieth century. Kotlowitz's journalism has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and public radio's This American Life. His documentary work includes The Interrupters, which follows violence interrupters working to prevent shootings in Chicago. His numerous honors include two Peabody Awards, two Columbia duPont Awards, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, the George Polk Award, and an Emmy.