Writers in the Schools (WITS)  co-founder Phillip Lopate will be in Houston for the Cinema Arts Festival held November 10 – 14, 2010 at various locations. On November 13th, the renowned essayist will present the documentary Chekhov for Children with director Sasha Waters Freyer, following the lives of the children Lopate staged and directed in the 1979 version of  Chekhov’s  Uncle Vanya.  That same day, Lopate moderates a panel discussion called “The State of Criticism: Film and the Arts” with other film contributors. This 2nd annual event is sponsored by the Houston Cinema Arts Society.

Since co-founding WITS  with Marvin Hoffman in 1983, Lopate has written and edited a series of essay and poem collections, books, and anthologies. His essays, fiction, poetry, film and architectural criticism have appeared in The Best American Short Stories (1974), The Best American Essays (1987), several Pushcart Prize annuals, The Paris Review, Harper’s, Vogue, Esquire, Film Comment, Threepenny Review, Double Take, New York Times, Harvard Educational Review, Preservation, Cite, 7 Days, Metropolis, Conde Nast Traveler, and many other periodicals and anthologies.

After working with children for twelve years as a writer in the schools, he taught creative writing and literature at Fordham, Cooper Union, University of Houston, and New York University. He currently holds the John Cranford Adams Chair at Hofstra University, and also teaches in the MFA graduate programs at Columbia, the New School and Bennington.

For Cinema Arts Festival ticket information and event schedule, click here.

Who: Phillip Lopate

What: Cinema Arts Festival film Chekhov for Children; Meet the Makers: The State of Criticism

When: Saturday, November 13, 2010. Panel discussion at 4:00 pm; film begins at 6:45 pm

Where: Edwards Greenway Palace Theater 4

Cost: All Meet the Makers events are FREE and open to the public; tickets to Chekhov for Children are $10.