A Conversation with Alex Kotlowitz, Author, Storyteller and Lover of the Boundary Waters

We sit down with writer Alex Kotlowitz, to discuss his experiences and writings about the Boundary Waters, a tremendous contrast with his well-known books and articles on people's lived experience of urban violence in Chicago.
Alex chronicles those at the margins of our society, examining race, poverty, and violence, including his seminal works, There Are No Children Here and An American Summer. Alex has also been a contributor to This American Life, including the powerful series on Harper High School on the South Side of Chicago.
Alex first came to the Boundary Waters in the summer of 1975 and has returned almost every year since then. Despite being a city boy, Alex feels most at home in the Boundary Waters, traveling by canoe on the water. In 2019, Alex wrote an important article for The New Yorker, in which he explains his love of the Boundary Waters and describes the threats posed by the proposed Twin Metals sulfide mine to the Boundary Waters. In 2022, Alex recorded an audio diary of his trip into the Boundary Waters for The New Yorker Radio Hour.