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 and two children. Writing Kotlowitz is the author of four books, including "An American Summer" which was awarded the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize. 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. 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