Alex Kotlowitz and Adam Moss in Conversation

In his most recent book, An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago, acclaimed journalist Alex Kotlowitz once again takes up the subject of youth, poverty, and gun violence in urban America that he explored so powerfully in There Are No Children Here. Joining him to discuss his work and the issues it tackles will be Adam Moss, whose fifteen years of innovative work as editor-in-chief of New York Magazine made it the must-read that it is today.

Alex Kotlowitz is the author of four books, including the national bestseller There Are No Children Here, selected by the New York Public Library as one of the 150 most important books of the twentieth century.  His work has appeared in the New Yorker and the New York Times Magazine and has been featured on This American Life.  His documentary work includes The Interrupters, for which he received a Film Independent Spirit Award and an Emmy.  His other honors include a George Polk Award, two Peabody Awards, the Helen Bernstein Award, and the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award. He teaches at Northwestern University.

Adam Moss was editor-in-chief of New York Magazine from 2004 until he stepped down in March. The vast digital expansion he oversaw for parent company New York Media led to the creation of five other publications—Vulture, The Cut, Intelligencer, The Strategist, and Grub Street—and grew to reach 50 million visitors each month. During Moss’s tenure, New York and nymag.com won 40 National Magazine Awards. Moss first rose to prominence in the early 1990s as founding editor of the legendary weekly 7 Days, after which he took on a succession of leading editorial roles at the New York Times. Advertising Age named him Editor of the Year in 2001, 2007, and 2017; Adweek gave him the same honor in 2018. In 2012 he won the Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism.