Alex Kotlowitz

(born in 1955) is an American writer, journalist, filmmaker and university professor, as well as author of four reportage books and winner of numerous literary awards. His pieces were published in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker , The Washington Post, and many more. He also co-creted The Interrupters, an Emmy Award-winning documentary, which was also distinguished with the Independent Spirit Award and Cinema Eye Honors. He won the Carl Sandburg Prize and the Heartland Prize awarded by The Chicago Tribune for his book The Other Side of the River: A Story of Two Towns, a Death, and America's Dilemma (1999). His subsequent best-seller – There Are No Children Here – which tells the story of the lives of two boys trying to survive in Chicago's crime-ridden Henry Horner Homes was named one of the 150 most important books of the 20th century by the New York Public Library, and a film adaptation starring Oprah Winfrey was produced based on the piece. Kotlowitz's latest book An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago  (2019) won the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize. In this book, the author addresses the brutal violence on the streets of Chicago, delving into the lives and psyches of the victims and perpetrators.