Denison University welcomes author Alex Kotlowitz from 11:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. on Thursday (Oct. 27) in Slayter Hall Auditorium. His presentation is titled, "How to Pick a Fight without Throwing a Punch: A Writer's Life." Kotlowitz has made writing about issues of poverty, race and children the focus of his literary career. The presentation is free and open to the public and is part of the "Built by Rasp and Bicycle" series at Denison, a year-long consideration of how we make our homes, and how they make us. This lecture is sponsored by the Lilly Endowment.

Kotlowitz is perhaps best known for the best-sellingThere Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America. The book, which was published in 1991 and has since sold over half-a-million copies, was the recipient of numerous awards, including the Helen B. Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Carl Sandburg Award and a Christopher Award. The New York Public Library selectedThere Are No Children Hereas one of the 150 most important books of the century. In the fall of 1993, it was adapted for television as an ABC Movie-of-the-Week starring Oprah Winfrey. His second book,The Other Side of the River: A Story of Two Towns, a Death and America's Dilemma, also has received accolades. The book received The Chicago Tribune's Heartland Prize for Non-Fiction and the Great Lakes Booksellers Award for Non-Fiction.

Kotlowitz writes investigative articles which appear regularly in such national magazines as the New Yorker and the New York Times Sunday Magazine. Formerly a staff writer for the Wall Street Journal, Kotlowitz also has served as a correspondent and a writer for a Frontline documentary ("Let's Get Married") and for PBS's Media Matters. He also contributes to public radio's This American Life. He is a writer-in-residence at Northwestern University where he teaches and a visiting professor at the University of Notre Dame as the Welch Chair in American Studies. He also has been a writer-in-residence at the University of Chicago. Kotlowitz regularly gives public lectures.

A graduate of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., Kotlowitz currently lives with his family just outside Chicago. His journalism honors include the George Foster Peabody Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and the George Polk Award. He is the recipient of three honorary degrees and the John Lafarge Memorial Award for Interracial Justice given by New York's Catholic Interracial Council.

Calendar Listing:

CALENDAR LISTING: Denison University, Granville -- Author Alex Kotlowitz speaks as part of the "Built by Rasp and Bicycle" series at 11:30 a.m., Thursday (Oct. 27), Burton Morgan Lecture Hall (150 Ridge Road). Free and open to the public. For more information contact (740) 587-6668.

About Denison:

Denison University, founded in 1831, is an independent, residential liberal arts institution located in Granville, Ohio. A highly selective college enrolling 2,100 full-time undergraduate students from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, Denison is a place where innovative faculty and motivated students collaborate in rigorous scholarship, civic engagement and the cultivation of independent thinking.

For press inquiries:

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Barbara Stambaugh

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Director, Media Relations

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(740) 587-8575