An Evening with Alex Kotlowitz

For forty years, Alex Kotlowitz has been telling stories from the heart of America, deeply intimate tales of struggle and perseverance. He's the author of four books, including his most recent, An American Summer, which received the J. Anthony Lukas Prize. His other works include the national bestseller There Are No Children Here, which the NY Public Library selected as one of the 150 most important books of the twentieth century -- and The Other Side of the River, which received the Chicago Tribune’s Heartland Prize for Nonfiction. The American Academy of Arts and Letters honored him with the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award for his lifetime of writing, “which illuminates astonishing national inequities through the lens of individual experience.”

His work has appeared in many publications, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, and This American Life. His acclaimed documentary, The Interrupters, premiered at Sundance and was awarded an Emmy and a Film Independent Spirit Award. His other honors include two Peabodys, a George Polk Award, and the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award. Raised in New York, he’s been a Chicagoan for nearly forty years where he lives with his wife Maria Woltjen, who runs the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights. They have two children, Mattie and Lucas. Kotlowitz teaches journalism at Northwestern University.