Naturally, the outing does not go quite as planned: Lily loses a cherished red balloon and, as Lopate writes, reacts as if she is "experiencing precociously the fullness of grief." Lopate's use of humor elicited hearty laughs from the crowd, but his writing is full of complex emotions that blend comic sarcasm with touching moments and reflections. In a poignant essay from A Portrait Inside My Head recounting Lopate and his wife's attempt at "the chimera of a perfect children's outing" for their daughter Lily, 6 years old at the time, Lopate told the story of a trip to have tea at New York's lavish Plaza Hotel. Lopate has a unique way of creating a vivid representation of his relationships with others, even in short essays. According to Lopate, a writer must learn to accept the sense of guilt from pain inflicted upon others through creative nonfiction. "If you plan to write about friendship, make a lot of friends because you're bound to lose a few," Lopate said. Lopate offered plenty of wisdom to the audience from his selection from the latter on "The Ethics of Writing about Others." He emphasized that writers have to be willing to offend when they write about those close to them. Lopate, a well-known essayist, teacher, and versatile scribe in general, came to Brazos Bookstore on Friday to read from his two new books, a collection of essays called A Portrait Inside My Head and a sort of how-to manual for writers called To Show and to Tell. At least, that's what he tells himself while he is writing.
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