Alex Kotlowitz

Alex Kotlowitz (born March 31, 1955) is an American journalist, author, and filmmaker. His 1991 book ''There Are No Children Here'' was a national bestseller and received the Christopher Award and Helen Bernstein Award. He is a two-time recipient of both the Peabody Award and the Dupont Award for journalism. He co-produced the 2011 documentary ''The Interrupters'', based on his ''New York Times Magazine'' article, which received an Independent Spirit Award and Emmy Award.

Biography

Kotlowitz was raised in New York City, the son of former New York public television executive and former ''Harper's Magazine'' editor Robert Kotlowitz. Kotlowitz received his undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University and is an alumnus of the Ragdale Foundation. His first journalism job was at a small alternative weekly in Lansing, Michigan. He currently lives in Chicago with his wife, Maria Woltjen, who founded and for 17 years directed the Young Center for Immigrant Children for Immigrant Children's Rights. They have two children, Mattie and Lucas.

Writing

Kotlowitz is the author of four books, including "An American Summer" which was awarded the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize. Pulitzer-prize winner Matthew Desmond calls it "a masterpiece of real-life storytelling." Novelist Luis Urrea writes: "An American Summer is at turns shocking, heartrending, and deeply moving ... This is about the soul of our country." Kirkus called it "A fiercely uncompromising -- and unforgettable -- portrait." NPR, The Washington Post, The Economist, the Dallas Morning News, Kirkus Reviews and The National Book Review named it one of the best books of 2019.

Kotlowitz is also the author of '' There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America'', ''The Other Side of the River: A Story of Two Towns'', ''a Death and America's Dilemma'' and ''Never a City So Real'', among other works. ''There Are No Children Here,'' a national bestseller, is the winner of the Carl Sandburg Award, a Christopher Award, and the Helen B. Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism. The New York Public Library selected this work as one of the 150 most important books of the twentieth century. In 1993, it was adapted as a television movie produced by and starring Oprah Winfrey. ''The Other Side of the River'' received the Heartland Prize for Nonfiction. The New York Times wrote of this book, "A vivid microcosm, a telling tableau of the way we are ... Alex Kotlowitz's nuanced and absorbing account of the mysterious death of a young black man in southwestern Michigan ... is important, essential even, for the rest of us to contemplate." Both books were selected as a New York Times Notable Book of the year. The case at the center of The Other Side of the River was recently re-opened by local authorities and by the state's Attorney General. (https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-other-side-of-the-river-revisited) Of ''Never a City So Real'', one critic wrote, "It's a fine successor to Nelson Algren's " Chicago: City on the Make" as a song to our rough-and-tumble, broken-nosed city."

Kotlowitz, a '' Wall Street Journal'' staff writer from 1984 to 1993, has contributed to '' The New York Times Magazine'', '' The New Yorker'', and Public Radio International’s ''This American Life''. His articles have also appeared in '' Granta'', '' The Washington Post'', The '' Chicago Tribune'', '' Rolling Stone'', '' The Atlantic'' and '' The New Republic''. His work has also been included in numerous anthologies -- and on PBS's ''Frontline'' and NPR's '' All Things Considered'' and '' Morning Edition''. His 2016 podcast, "Written Inside", a collection of essays by inmates at a maximum security prison, was picked as one of the top ten podcasts of the year by NPR's Lauren Ober. His play, ''An Unobstructed View'' (co-authored with Amy Drozdowska), premiered in Chicago in June 2005.

About his work, one critic wrote, "Kotlowitz is an omnivorous observer, discerning listener, and unassuming witness to urban life." The American Academy of Arts and Letters in awarding Kotlowitz the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award said of his work, "it illuminates astonishing national inequities through the lens of individual experience."

He's been awarded honors in all three mediums. His journalism honors include two Peabody Awards, two Columbia duPont Awards, an Emmy, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and the George Polk Award. In 2019, he received the Harold Washington Literary Award. He's been a Distinguished Visitor at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and is the recipient of John LaFarge Memorial Award for Interracial Justice given by New York's Catholic Interracial Council.

Film

Kotlowitz's documentary ''The Interrupters'', co-produced with filmmaker Steve James, debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2011 to widespread critical acclaim. The project was inspired by Kotlowitz's 2008 ''New York Times Magazine'' article, "Blocking the Transmission of Violence." For the film, Kotlowitz and James received an Emmy, the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature. and a Cinema Eye Award, and was selected by numerous publications, including ''The New Yorker'' and '' Entertainment Weekly'', as one of the top ten films of 2011. In 2012, it aired on PBS's ''Frontline'' as a two-hour special.

Academia

Kotlowitz is a professor at the Medill School of Journalism and has been a visiting professor at the University of Notre Dame and at Dartmouth College. He also has been a writer-in-residence at the University of Chicago. He is the recipient of eight honorary degrees.

Bibliography

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kotlowitz, Alex
American male journalists

Granta people
Wesleyan University alumni
Northwestern University faculty
University of Notre Dame faculty
University of Chicago faculty
Living people
1955 births