Phillip Lopate
Phillip Lopate | |
|---|---|
| Born | Error: Need valid birth date: year, month, day Brooklyn, New York, USA |
| Occupation | writer |
| Nationality | American |
| Website | |
| http://www.philliplopate.com | |
Phillip Lopate (born 1943) is an American film critic, essayist, fiction writer, poet, and teacher.
Life
Lopate was born in Brooklyn, New York.
Career
Lopate attended Columbia University and worked with children for twelve years as a writer-in-the-schools. He taught creative writing and literature to graduate and undergraduate students at many universities, including Bennington College, Fordham University, Cooper Union, the University of Houston, New York University (NYU), and the Columbia University School of the Arts. He currently holds the Adams Chair at Hofstra University, where he is Professor of English. He is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[1]
Lopate has stated that the reason book editors do not advocate drastic changes to writers' works are: "1) they are intimidated by reputation, as we all are; 2) they respect the traditional view that in the end it is the author’s book, not the publisher, and if the author is set on having it a certain way—very well. The second reason seems to me not a bad practice, and preferable to star editors who think they know everything and try to rewrite every book under their sway."
Writings
Lopate is the author of three essay collections: Bachelorhood, Against Joie de Vivre, and Portrait of My Body; two novels, Confessions of Summer and The Rug Merchant; two poetry collections, The Eyes Don't Always Want to Stay Open and The Daily Round; as well as a memoir of his experiences working with the creative arts with children, Being With Children. This book came out of his association with the artists-in-the-school organization Teachers & Writers Collaborative. He has also edited numerous anthologies, including the recent American Movie Critics, and won many prizes and fellowships.
He writes about film, travel, architecture and urbanism for various publications, including The New York Times, Vogue, Esquire, Film Comment, Film Quarterly, Cinemabook, Threepenny Review, Doubletake, Tikkun, and American Film. A volume of his selected movie criticism, Totally Tenderly Tragically, was published in 1998.
In a 2007 interview with Dan Schneider [2], Lopate wrote, of essays:
"I would characterize an essay as a circling around a subject, which tracks the deepening thoughts of the essayist about that subject. It can deal with a past experience (a memoiristic personal essay) or be a rumination on a topic, philosophical or everyday."[1]
In that same interview, Lopate mentioned Edward Hoagland, Scott Russell Sanders, Mary Oliver, Vivian Gornick, Emily Fox Gordon, Daniel Harris, Gore Vidal, Garry Wills, Andrew Sarris, Molly Haskell, Kent Jones, Gilberto Perez, James Harvey, Arlene Croce, James Wood, and Cynthia Ozick as top essayists.[2]
References
- ^ The Dan Schneider Interview 7: Phillip Lopate 1 December, 2007
- ^ The Dan Schneider Interview 7: Phillip Lopate 1 December, 2007
External links
- www.philliplopate.com
- Hofstra University webpage
- In-depth interview with Phillip Lopate
- "Film Criticism Comes of Age" article in Columbia College Today
- Phillip Lopate on Weekend America