Best known for his award-winning nonfiction book, There Are No Children Here, ALEX KOTLOWITZ has made writing about issues of poverty, race and children the focus of his literary career. The book, which the New York Public Library listed as one of the 150 most important books of the century, examined life in a Chicago housing project through the eyes of two young brothers. His second book, The Other Side of the River, investigated a mysterious murder as it explored issues of race and prejudice. His investigative articles 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 participated in the University of Oregon's Literary Nonfiction program in January 2000 when he conducted a workshop entitled Writing About Children.

Q: You've been classified as an author who writes about children and issues surrounding them, but there are certain common themes in your work. How would you categorize yourself?
A: When people ask me what I write about most, I usually tell them I write about race and poverty. But in that context, I think I do write a lot about children because I enjoy being around kids and I think kids are sometimes a very good vehicle for getting at some of these issues.

Q: Why are they appropriate vehicles?
A: Because we've all been there once. There is immediately some common ground. And the other thing is that, for the most part, I think children are fairly innocent. It's arguable. But people tend to be fairly sympathetic to them. Lafayette and Pharoah [the brothers in There are No Children Here] are the perfect example because despite all the differences they have with many of the readers, I think readers can identify in one respect or another with the kids. There are parts of their lives that the readers can say, Oh, I remember doing that as a kid, or I remember being like that as a kid or I remember thinking like that when I was a kid.

Q: You began writing about children long before you had kids of your own. What has been the attraction?
A: I've always enjoyed working with kids. I spent a year working with kids at a settlement house in Atlanta. When I was in college, I was a Big Brother for four years to one boy. I've always loved just hanging out with kids. Part of it is that I just love the existential nature of a child. They don't worry about the next day. It's just the moment. I can be fairly serious at times, but there ís also a childlike nature to me. I love just playing basketball with them or just sitting around talking with them. I love going to the movies with them. So there was a nice excuse for that. I mean, they're great company.

Q: In writing about children, how significant is it to also address adults?
A: I think it's important that when we write about kids, we also write about the adults in their lives. I think just the nature of being a child has everything to do with relationships to adults. Sometimes the relationships aren't good, but the one common denominator among kids is that their lives revolve, in some way or another, around adults.

Q: As a reporter, you prefer to take notes rather than use a tape recorder. Why is that?
A: I might use a tape recorder if I was doing a profile of someone and I thought I was going to have to quote them extensively. That is, I might use a tape recorder as well as a notebook. But I do think that tape recorders ultimately make reporters lazy. You tend not to think as rigorously as you might otherwise about questions, about what you haven't asked. I also think that it takes a lot of time to transcribe tapes. And then there's always the possibility that the tape recorder won't work.

Q: Tape recorders can also serve as an obstacle between you and your subject. Besides avoiding them, how do you put your young interview subjects at ease?
A: Oftentimes, they just want to please. They may be parroting back to you what they think you want to hear. And so it takes more patience and tolerance with kids to really get to know them so that they feel they don't have to prove themselves, and that they can really be themselves.