This leading American essayist and writer of literary nonfiction gives a free reading at Carnegie Mellon University on Wed., Oct. 27.

If you read at all, there's a good chance you've come across Lopate's essays, prose, fiction, poetry or criticism.

His work is widely anthologized, and has appeared often in many of the major magazines and journals that publish literary nonfiction, from The Paris Review and Harper's to Vogue and Esquire.

Lopate was recently featured in Pittsburgh-based journal Creative Nonfiction, making a forceful argument against the widespread practice of fabricating dialogue in nonfiction, in particular in memoir, a genre Lopate helped revive.

His books include the novel The Rug Merchant (1987); a collection of his movie criticism, Totally Tenderly Tragically; and the 2004 biographical monograph Rudy Burckhardt: Photographer and Filmmaker. Also in 2004, Lopate published Waterfront: A Journey Around Manhattan, a book about walking that island.

The Lopate reader Getting Personal: Selected Writings was published in 2003. 

The Brooklyn-born Lopate, a professor of English at Hofstra University, is best known for his essays. The most recent of his published collections are 1989's wonderfully titled Against Joie de Vivre and Portrait of My Body (1996). He also edited the anthology The Art of the Personal Essay.

Lopate reads at 7:30 p.m. Wed., Oct. 27. The venue is Porter Hall 100, in Gregg Hall, on the CMU campus. A book signing and reception follow.

The event is part of the Adamson Visiting Writers Series, organized by CMU's English Department. For more info, see www.cmu.edu/hss/english/events.