Artists' Fellowship - 1991
Nonfiction
Artist Statement:
I was able to work on a new collection of personal essays - I'm about halfway finished - and also, for the first time, write a screenplay. This was a real growth experiene for me.
More about the Artist:
Phillip Lopate has written three personal essay collections, two poetry collections, a memoir of his teaching experiences, a collection of his movie criticism, and a biographical monograph. His most recent book of nonfiction prose is the urbanistic meditation Waterfront: A Journey Around Manhattan, of which Conde-Nast Traveler wrote,
“The celebrated essayist takes a tour of the city’s ever-changing perimeter, sharing his knowledge of New York’s history, mythology, and plans for the future. Poring over his informed, readable prose is like taking a stroll with a favorite professor: he is opinionated, casual, and erudite in equal measure.”
Lopate is often cited as one of the foremost contributors to the return of memoir in the US. AGNI Editor Sven Birkerts wrote that:
“Phillip Lopate is one of our few essential essayists. He registers with accuracy and tact the voice of a man of deep human impulse living in a civilization on the wane. His fearlessness is tonic, his candor is straight gin.”
Lopate has been awarded 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 Fellowships. He received a Christopher medal for Being With Children, a Texas Institute of Letters award in the best non-fiction book of the year category for Bachelorhood , and was a finalist for the PEN best essay book of the year award for Portrait of My Body. His anthology, Writing New York, received a citation from the New York Society Library and honorable mention from the Municipal Art Society's Brendan Gill Award.
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