Phillip Lopate

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Phillip Lopate (b. 1943) is an American essayist, fiction writer, poet, and teacher. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he 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 many anthologies, including the recent American Movie Critics, and won many prizes and fellowships.

He writes about movies, travel, architecture and urbanism for publications like 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.

After attending Columbia University and working 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, inlcuding 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.