Tale of Two Obituary Writers Confabs

We've been doing a lot of posting about the Professional Obituary Writers Workshop that will be held at The Oregonian in Portland, Ore., May 8-11, 2008.

Now we've learned that the 10th Great Obituary Writers International Conference will be held at its former home, the Plaza Hotel, in Las Vegas, N.M., June 12-14, 2008.

If you write about the dead for a living and can afford to, I recommend you attend both events.

The Portland workshop is aimed at providing training sessions for obit-writing journalists.

Speakers so far include nationally known writer's coach Jack Hart, Pulitzer Prize winner Jim Sheeler of the Rocky Mountain News, Margalit Fox of the New York Times, Adam Bernstein of the Washington Post, Gayle Sims of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Kay Powell of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Robin Hinch of the Orange County Register, Larken Bradley of the West Marin Citizen, Alana Baranick (that would be me) of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Don Colburn of The Oregonian, Toronto freelance obit writer Ron Csillag, Oregonian researcher/librarian Lynne Palombo and Amelia Rosner of alt.obituaries.

The New Mexico conference speakers have not been announced at the conference Web site - www.obitpage.com. But if the 10th Great follows the course of its Numbered Great predecessors, the sessions will be informative and entertaining. Conference goers most likely will include obituary aficionados as well as folks who write obits. The camaraderie is awesome.

The 10th Great, as its name suggests, will observe its 10th anniversary this year.

Meanwhile, a new organization, the Society of Professional Obituary Writers, will hold its first general meeting and present awards for obituary writing at the Portland workshop. Contest details will be posted on this blog and at www.obitwriters.org in the next week or so.

It's an exciting time to be an obituary writer.

Examples of Multimedia Obituaries

I think Gayle Ronan Sims of the Philadelphia Inquirer is one of the best at putting together multimedia obits. She writes terrific stories and links them online to extra photos, audio and video, creates slide shows, and sometimes finds other online pieces to further enlighten readers.

One of her recent efforts (recent for when this post was written) was for the Jan. 20, 2008, obit of Joseph William Burk, Penn rowing coach and war hero.

She found an online newsletter for rowing enthusiasts with a complete rundown of Burk's rowing career and a row-by-row radio broadcast of Burk winning the Diamond Sculls at the Henley Royal Regatta in England in 1938, where he broke the the record by eight seconds.

Keep checking the Philadelphia Inquirer obit page for other examples of multimedia obits.

Please let us know about multimedia obits from other papers that we can share on this blog.

Poynter Online centerpiece on Multimedia Obituaries

Mallary Tenore's months of research on the subject of multimedia obituaries culminated in the centerpiece, Linking to Life with Multimedia Obits, at the Poynter Institute Web site on Jan. 28, 2008.

She addresses linking obits to video, audio and slide shows, as well as obit blogs, Legacy.com's online data base of paid obits from many American newspapers and online tributes.

Mallary also gave the Society of Professional Journalists its first media exposure. The Professional Obituary Writers Workshop scheduled for May 8-11 at The Oregonian in Portland, Ore., was promoted in the centerpiece's comment field.

Thanks, Mallary.

Lots of speakers for Professional Obituary Writers Workshop in Portland, Ore.

Amy Starke and Joan Harvey are hard at work, lining up speakers and hotel accommodations for the Professional Obituary Writers Workshop that will be held May 8-11 at The Oregonian in Portland, Ore.

We'll start this list with the most recent additions followed by those who were announced earlier.

-- Margalit Fox, New York Times obituary writer and a finalist for the 2005 ASNE award for obit writing, will speak on obituaries as American social history, and possibly will make other presentations, too.

-- Robin Hinch, longtime obituary writer from the Orange County Register, will speak on "The Everyman Obituary."

-- Jim Sheeler, reporter for the Rocky Mountain News, winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing, will speak on writing military obituaries and the experience of doing his Pulitzer feature, "Final Salute."

-- Adam Bernstein, of the Washington Post, one of the most respected obit writers in the country and perhaps the world, on writing advance obituaries and on doing deep historical research.

-- Gayle Sims of the Philadelphia Inquirer, conducting a half-day workshop on multimedia obituaries.

-- Kay Powell, of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, speaking about regional differences in obituaries, tragedy interviewing, and how smaller papers and weekly papers can work obituaries into each edition.

-- Larken Bradley, NNA obit-writing award winner, now with the West Marin Citizen, a weekly newspaper in Point Reyes Station, Calif., conducting discussions on writing obituaries for pay and on doing obituaries for community newspapers.

-- Larken Bradley will join Ron Csillag, a Toronto obit freelancer, in discussing freelancing the obituary.

-- Oregonian researcher/librarian extraordinaire Lynne Palombo, on backgrounding/cops-and-courts.

-- Special guest Amelia Rosner, obituary devotee/connoisseur, on a topic to be announced.

-- Jack Hart, nationally known writer's coach and author, conducting one of his special writing intensives. Even if you've been writing for 30 years, you'll get a lot out of this.

-- Don Colburn, Oregonian reporter, with a talk on Oregon's assisted suicide law and how it works, kicking off a discussion on handling suicides in obituaries. We'll show video of one, too.

-- Alana Baranick, Cleveland Plain Dealer, organizing the brand-new Society of Professional Obituary Writers (SPOW).

Keep watching this blog for more on the workshop, SPOW, SPOW's Web site and a contest for obituary writers.

Additional speakers for Professional Obituary Writers Workshop

The following speakers have been added to the list from the previous post of folks who will enlighten us at the Professional Obituary Writers Workshop in Portland, Ore., May 8-11:

-- Special guest Amelia Rosner, obituary devotee/connoisseur and a leading alt.obituaries poster, will speak on a topic to be announced.

-- Ron Csillag, Toronto obit freelancer, is expected to lead a discussion on freelancing the obituary.

-- Oregonian researcher/librarian extraordinaire Lynne Palombo will offer tips on doing pre-obituary background cops-and-courts searches.

Questions? Contact Amy Starke and Joan Harvey at workshop@obitwriters.org.

Portland Workshop Update

Amy Starke reports that the Professional Obituary Writers Workshop, which will be held at The Oregonian in Portland, Ore., May 8-11, is shaping up.

So far, she and her workshop partner Joan Harvey have lined up the following:

-- Jack Hart, nationally known writer's coach, will conduct one of his special writing intensives.

-- Don Colburn, Oregonian reporter, will kick off a discussion of handling suicides in obituaries with a talk on Oregon's assisted suicide law and how it works.

-- Gayle Sims of the Philadelphia Inquirer is tentatively scheduled to conduct a half-day workshop on multimedia.

-- Larken Bradley, who has received several National Newspaper Association honors for obituaries she wrote for a weekly paper in Marin County, Calif., is expected to conduct discussions on writing obituaries for pay and on doing obituaries for community newspapers.

-- Adam Bernstein of the Washington Post will address writing advance obituaries and doing deep historical research.

-- Kay Powell, obits editor at the Atlanta Journal Constitution, is scheduled to speak about “Regional Differences in Obituaries,” “Tragedy Interviewing” and how smaller papers and weekly papers can work obituaries into each edition.

-- Alana Baranick of The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio, will talk about organizing the brand-new Society of Professional Obituary Writers.

Visit this blog and the SPOW site - which is under construction at the moment - for the latest in the continuing saga of the workshop and the new organization.

Society of Professional Obituary Writers. It's alive!!!

Society of Professional Obituary Writers is the name that the advisory committee has chosen for the new organization for folks who write about the dead for a living.

SPOW will hold its first meeting during the Professional Obituary Writers Workshop at The Oregonian in Portland, Ore., May 8-11.

Keep watching this blog for more information about the workshop, which is the brainchild of Joan Harvey and Amy Starke of The Oregonian, and news about SPOW.