As an undergraduate at Wesleyan University, Montgomery Fellow and visiting English professor Alex Kotlowitz "made the mistake" of taking organic chemistry. Disillusioned by the class and the endless hours spent in the laboratory, Kotlowitz decided not to continue studying science.
Kotlowitz dropped out of school in his sophomore year and traveled to Atlanta where he had a "transformative" experience that would later inform his writing and reporting on poverty, racial injustice and underprivileged children for media outlets such as The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio and Frontline, he said.
During the eight months he spent in Atlanta, Kotlowitz volunteered in a settlement house an organization that provided educational and social services to the inner city community and spent most of his time working with children. Having grown up on the Upper West Side of New York City, his time at the settlement house was his "first immersion in the deep and profound poverty in our cities," he said.
Kotlowitz left Atlanta "very politically minded" and returned to Wesleyan to complete a government major, he said.
Kotlowitz who is currently in residence as the Summer term Montgomery Fellow and is teaching English 67, "Telling Stories: The Art of Non-Fiction Writing" has since received critical acclaim as an author and journalist. He spent 10 years reporting on labor and social issues in the Midwest for the Wall Street Journal, has written numerous features for The New Yorker and has served as a writer and correspondent for Frontline and PBS documentaries.
If it were up to Kotlowitz, though, he would devote all of his work to researching and writing books, he said.
Kotlowitz has written three nonfiction books, including his 1991 best-selling book "There Are No Children Here" which follows two boys living in a public housing complex in Chicago for two years. It was named one of the 150 most important books of the century by the New York Public Library.
"My first real love is writing it's where my heart is, where I feel most at ease," Kotlowitz said. "If I had my way, I'd be working from book to book. The thing about a book is that you have much more room to breath in terms of telling stories."
For Kotlowitz, there is nothing more important in writing than telling a good story a goal he is trying to impart to the 16 students in his class, he said.
"I want a story that's going to knock me off balance, make me squirm a little bit, surprise me," he said. "In the end, what makes a good story is a simple question do you want to know what happens next?"
Students in English 67 said that Kotlowitz's emphasis on "finding the story" has helped them improve their own writing.
"We're learning how to tell a story honestly, how to get out of the way of the story by cutting down on our own literary tricks and manipulations and telling it simply," Liz Faiella '12, a student in the class, said.
Teghvir Sethi '12 said he appreciates Kotlowitz's teaching style because he is "down-to-earth," providing a unique journalistic perspective and encouraging students without giving unnecessary praise.
"He doesn't [favor] writing styles, it's more about the stories you chose," Sethi said. "He made most of the class, especially me, realize that we had to really know what we were talking about when we were writing something, to focus on detail, on fact."
Faiella said that Kotlowitz who has "a quiet, thoughtful demeanor" encourages constructive debate about the key questions that arise from assigned readings. In the writing workshop component of the course, in which students write their own narrative nonfiction pieces and critique each other's work in class, Kotlowitz establishes a good balance between his own suggestions and student discussion, Faiella said.
Kotlowitz who lives in Chicago and teaches two narrative nonfiction courses as a writer-in-residence at Northwestern University each winter said that because he is used to teaching juniors and seniors, he did not know what to expect from the sophomores in his class this summer.
"But for many of them, I wouldn't know that they're in their second year," he said. "Sometimes the discussions around the readings are so rigorous and engaging that I think I could leave the room and they would go on without me."
At the beginning of the term, Kotlowitz gave his cell phone number to the students in his class and has since invited the group to his house on two different occasions, according to Faiella.
"He wants us to be in touch with him, to feel free to get lunch or talk about our projects," Faiella said. "He gets really interested in our stories and is excited about them."
Kotlowitz who began teaching 12 years ago so that he would have a reliable source of income said that he now enjoys the experience of teaching and appreciates the friendships that have resulted from working with students, though he used to complain that his students were too demanding.
"There are inevitably a handful of students who are really excited about this kind of writing and there's nothing more rewarding than that," he said. "I don't know that I could do it full time for me my own work is just too important."
While spending the summer in Hanover, Kotlowitz is working remotely on his current project, a documentary titled "The Interrupters." The film spotlights CeaseFire, a Chicago organization dedicated to reducing gang violence, and will air on PBS' Frontline when completed.
Kotlowitz who continually interrupted himself during his interview with The Dartmouth to remark excitedly about an osprey flying near the Montgomery House on Occom Pond said he has particularly enjoyed his summer in residency because of Hanover's surroundings.
"I tell my students that I don't know how they get any work done during the summer," he said. "It's so beautiful out, even I have a tough time getting my work done."
Kotlowtiz said that when he was first approached about the Montgomery Fellowship, agreeing to come for the summer was "sort of a no-brainer." Kotlowitz said he had visited Hanover previously because his brother, Daniel Kotlowitz, is a theater professor at the College.
