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Renowned critic, author to spend two-day residency on campus

By Tom Vogel
April 27, 2007

Nationally renowned writer and critic Phillip Lopate, will visit St. Olaf April 26-27 for a two-day residency. During his time on campus he will lead a faculty seminar discussing his latest book, American Movie Critics: An Anthology from the Silents Until Now, and a seminar for students in creative writing and film classes on the 1953 Japanese film Ugetsu.

Lopate also will give a reading on "Novels and Movies: a Comedy of Remarriage," followed by a book signing Thursday, April 26, at 7:30 p.m. in Rolvaag Memorial Library, 525. The event is open to the St. Olaf community and the public. Throughout April, the St. Olaf bookstore, will be featuring books by Lopate.

Lopate's visit, which is co-hosted by the Boldt Chair in the Humanities the Department of English, is made possible through the generosity of O.C. and Patricia Boldt, founders of the Boldt Distinguished Teaching Chair in the Humanities at St. Olaf.

Professor of English Diana Postlethwaite, current holder of the Boldt Chair in the Humanities, describes Lopate as an ideal embodiment of the spirit of teaching.

"Lopate is a man after my own heart: someone who loves both good writing and the movies," Postlethwaite says. "We are immensely fortunate to have a writer and teacher of Phillip Lopate's caliber coming to share his enthusiasm for words and images."

A Distinguished Guest
Widely considered one of the foremost American essayists and a central figure in the recent revival of interest in memoir writing, Lopate perhaps is best known for his essays, which have been collected most recently in Getting Personal: Selected Writings. Lopate's work has been included in The Best American Essays and The Pushcart Prize series. His most recent book of nonfiction prose, published in 2004, is Waterfront: A Journey Around Manhattan.

Also a film critic, Lopate has written about movies for The New York Times, Vogue, Esquire, Film Comment, Film Quarterly, Cinemabook, Tikkun, American Film and the anthology The Movie That Changed My Life, among others publications. A volume of his selected movie criticism, Totally Tenderly Tragically, was published in 1998. His most recent anthology, American Movie Criticism: From the Silent Era to the Present, was published last year.

Lopate's many awards include a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, a New York Public Library Center for Scholars and Writers Fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts grants and two New York Foundation for the Arts grants. He also received a Christopher medal for his 1975 book, Being With Children, the Texas Institute of Letters award for best non-fiction book of the year (Bachelorhood: Tales of the Metropolis, 1981) and his book of personal essays, Portrait of My Body, was a finalist for the PEN Spielvogel-Diamonston Award for best essay book of the year in 1996. His anthology, Writing New York, received an honorable mention from the Municipal Art Society's Brendan Gill Award and a citation from the New York Society Library. He currently holds the Adams Chair at Hofstra University, on Long Island, where he is professor of English.

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.