Alex Kotlowitz is the author of three books including the national bestseller There Are No Children Here which the New York Public Library selected as one of the 150 most important books of the twentieth century. His second book, The Other Side of the River, was awarded the Heartland Prize for Non-fiction. For his documentary film, The Interrupters, he received an Emmy and an Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary. Kotlowitz's work, which has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker and on public radio's This American Life, has been honored in all three mediums, including two Peabodys, two duPonts, and a George Polk award. Kotlowitz is a writer-in-residence at Northwestern University. He lives with his wife, Maria Woltjen, and their two children, Mattie and Lucas, just outside of Chicago.