Society of Professional Obituary Writers Reorganization, Conference and Awards

The Society of Professional Obituary Writers (SPOW) is taking a hiatus from hosting a conference and handing out awards for obit writing for 2012 during the group’s reorganization.

SPOW Awards honoring obituary work published in 2011 will be presented along with awards for obits published in 2012 during the 2013 SPOW Conference at a location to be determined.

SPOW seeks to elect a new director, revamp its website and make the organization more relevant in the changing world of journalism.

Interested SPOW members, associate members and friends are invited to participate in the reorganization, recommend director candidates and volunteer for various duties by contacting current director Alana Baranick at alana.baranick@obitwriters.org.

Woman's paid obit neglects to mention pertinent detail: She killed five people.

A North Carolina newspaper explains why it published a paid obituary that neglected to mention the deceased's responsibility for a shooting rampage. Includes links to news stories.

'This American Life' Seeks Obit Suggestions

The New York Times Magazine has invited the radio program "This American Life" to guest edit its end-of-the-year obituaries issue called "The Lives They Lived." For this year's issue, The Times Magazine is looking to broaden the scope of the people featured, focusing less on notable people and more on those who died, but received little media attention.

"We're looking for stories, anecdotes, suggestions about people who have died this year that are particularly personal, emotional, unbelievable, extraordinary. These stories can be told by friends or relatives, business associates or casual acquaintances. They can even be told by the deceased people themselves, if archival tape, interviews or memoirs exist. They don't have to be long or epic -– the story isn’t supposed to tell their whole life –- but it'd be great if they're emotional or surprising and evocative of the featured person in some way. In particular, we'd love stories or suggestions about soldiers who have passed away, firefighters or police officers. Beloved teachers and the big turning points in their lives, or just one amazing teachable moment they nailed. Politicians? Town eccentrics? Someone who died who lived a great love story. A child who died. Also, anyone who left a particularly charming or extensive or simply mindblowing instructions for their memorial service."

Send pitches/links to Julie Snyder, senior producer of "This American Life."

Quote of the Day

"I still use a manual typewriter (a 1953 Underwood portable, in a robin’s-egg blue) because the soft pip-pip-pip of the typing of keys on a computer keyboard doesn’t quite fit with my sense of what writing sounds like. I need the hard metal clack, and I need those keys to sometimes catch so I can reach in and untangle them, turning my fingertips inky. Without slapping the return or turning the cylinder to release the paper with a sharp whip, without all that minor havoc, I feel I’ve paid no respect to the dead. What good is an obituary if it can be written so peaceably, so undisturbingly, in the dark of night?" --From "The Coffins of Little Hope" by Timothy Schaffert

The Geography of Loss

Patti Digh, author of "Life Is a Verb" and "What I Wish For You," is writing a book called "The Geography of Loss." She's also launched a Tumblr blog to highlight the answers of people around the world to one simple question:

For what or for whom do you grieve?

Personally, I grieve for my best friend, my grandmother, my cats (Princess, Sox, Eastman and Mystery), my high school sweetheart and some of the many people I've covered on the death beat. What about you?

PJ O'Rourke proposes vindictive pre-obits

I can remember when PJ O'Rourke was maybe the funniest writer in the country, when he edited National Lampoon, when he wrote stuff like High Speed Performance Characteristics of Pickup Trucks.

Sadly his work has declined to things like this predictable litany in which he wishes his political enemies dead. It's the usual suspects and there's nothing creative about it and it would be just as bad if his enemies happened to be conservatives. PJ became so partisan that he ate his brain, as well as his bilious good humor.

NYTimes Crossword Puzzle mentions in death notices

I'm a NYTimes crossword fan and a NYTimes death notice reader, and it's funny how these two obsessions manage to meet every now and then.

Today it is Mildred Swartsberg, who died at 99 and "had a passion for all the arts, sports and The New York Times crossword puzzle. She was great at anything she tried."

I'd hardly choose to be remembered for my devotion to the Sunday crossword - my spaghetti aglio et olio would be a better keepsake. Still today's death notice crossword mention set me to wondering how often the crossword pops up in death notices.

Nexis reveals that it is an astonishing 238 times since 1997, more than once a month. The pioneer was the redoubtable Bertha Newman, an accountant who was remembered as "a voracious reader, a devotee of The New York Times cross word puzzle, a woman of inspired conversation, a deeply caring friend, and a person who never lost her passionate love for the cultural life of this city."

Nor have I!!