Alison Flowers

Alison Flowers is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist in Chicago and founder of Spiralbound, a production company at the intersection of investigative journalism and immersive storytelling. Her investigative work has appeared in The Guardian, TIME, The Village Voice, VICE, The Intercept, The Daily Beast, Chicago Reader, Chicago Tribune, South Side Weekly and other outlets.

Flowers is a two-time winner of the Hillman Foundation’s Sidney Award and recipient of the 2026 Innocence Network’s Jim Dwyer Award for Journalism. Her reporting has contributed to the release of two innocent people from prison, and her 2016 investigation into Illinois’ felony murder law contributed to a critical amendment of the statute.

In 2019, Flowers co-produced the SHOWTIME documentary “16 Shots” about the police killing of Laquan McDonald. The film won an Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Documentary, received Television Academy Honors and earned a Peabody nomination. In 2024, Flowers was part of the team that won both the Pulitzer Prize for Audio Reporting and a Peabody Award for “You Didn’t See Nothin.” Her reporting for the podcast “Somebody,” examining the fatal shooting of Courtney Copeland, was a 2021 Pulitzer Prize finalist and prompted an investigation by Chicago’s Office of Inspector General.