ObitCon 2017 is next month. Coming?

Today's the last day to register for ObitCon. Tickets are just $25. Hope you can make it!

Registration for ObitCon 2017 opens

The fifth conference of The Society of Professional Obituary Writers will be held Oct. 13-15, 2017 at the Legacy.com offices in Evanston, Ill. Our current schedule of events is as follows:

On Friday, ObitCon participants will meet for dinner and drinks at an area restaurant.

On Saturday, participants will engage in discussions about obits and obituary writing, and attend a screening of the documentary, "Obit." A continental breakfast and a full lunch will be served. Special guests will be announced soon.


On Sunday, Grimmys will be awarded in the following categories: best short form obit (under 800 words), best long form obit (over 800 words), best obit of an ordinary Joe/Jane, obituary writer of the year and lifetime achievement in obituary writing.

If you'd like to join your fellow writers on the death beat for a three-day weekend of professional development and camaraderie, be sure to submit your vacation requests now. Tickets for the conference cost $25 per person.

To register, click here.

For those unable to attend, all events will be tweeted using the hashtag #obitcon.

ANNOUNCING: The Grimmys 2017

The Society of Professional Obituary Writers is currently accepting entries and nominations for outstanding obituary writing published in 2016-2017.

The contest offers awards, affectionately known as The Grimmys, in the following categories:

* Best short form obit (under 800 words)

* Best long form obit (over 800 words)

* Best obit of an ordinary Joe/Jane

* Obituary writer of the year

* Lifetime achievement in obituary writing


Reporters and editors from all over the world may submit entries to the contest, which will be blind-judged by a panel of society members. Trophies will be awarded to the winners at ObitCon 2017, the society's biennial conference.

ObitCon will be held Oct. 13-15 at the Legacy.com offices in Evanston, Ill. The event will feature discussions and professional development workshops for writers on the death beat.

Contest rules are posted on the society's website.

Deadline to enter is August 31, 2017.

WATCH: If You're Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast

They Died (Or Did They?)

One of the things that drive obituary writers mad is euphemisms for death. Following AP style, journalists should use the words "death," "dead" or "died" in their stories. The deceased does not "go with God," "follow Jesus home," "cross the Rainbow Bridge" or "pass away."

Some euphemisms still make it into print, especially in paid death notices, and now there's an Instagram account devoted to them. Check out They Didn't Die here.

ObitCon 2017 Announced

The fifth conference of The Society of Professional Obituary Writers (SPOW) will be held Oct. 13-15, 2017 in Evanston, Ill. If you'd like to join your fellow writers on the death beat for a three-day weekend of professional development and comraderie, be sure to submit your vacation requests now.

Details about panels, readings, special guests, tickets and the Grimmies will be posted on our website in the coming weeks.

XXX of obit writers?

The Quill Cafe has put together a rather extensive list of collective nouns for writers. Examples include:

* An ambiance of writers
* A creation of writers
* A dispatch of writers
* An idea of writers
* A sentence of writers
* A subplot of writers

What should be the collective noun for obituary writers?

Where are the women?

Reader Joan Tarbox of Rochester, N.Y., recently complained that the obituary pages in The New York Times were dominated by men.

“I’d love to track the obits for a month so I could give you some hard statistics,” she wrote.

The Times' public editor, Liz Spayd, decided to do the work for her and learned that 75 percent of the obits published in 2016 memorialized the life of a man.

It's likely the statistics are similar at other news organizations. Any ideas for how we, the obituary writers, can address this disparity?

How does novelist Megan Abbott spend her Sunday mornings?

"I am an insomniac. I wake up at 6 or 6:30 and get out of bed immediately. The coffee starts right away. Then I get to the computer as quickly as possible. I like to start writing when I’m still half-asleep, in a state between dreaming and waking. Sunday is a big writing day for me, a cocoon day, so I don’t check emails or go into Manhattan. Before I write, I like to read obits in The Times because they’re well written and I like the little details. It gets the energy going in the morning. I really like the obits of old Hollywood actors and actresses." --Megan Abbott

Inquiring Minds Want To Know

DEATH NOTICE: Joseph A. “Monkey Butt” Zajaczkowski, 60, of Medina, NY, entered into rest on Saturday, July 30, 2016 at his home.


Yet one more example of why we need journalists to write obits. How can someone publish this kind of death notice and not explain the story behind the nickname?

Share your thoughts on pay

Meet The Great And Captivating Kay Powell

In a lovely profile published in the latest issue of Mental Floss, writer Margaret Eby declared SPOW's very own Kay Powell as "America's Greatest Obituary Writer."

It's hard to disagree with that.

Eby described the process Powell used to write more than 2,000 obits for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and to "paint a picture of a complex city and an evolving South, and go well beyond the tropes of the form."

Powell also shared this wonderful bit of advice for those working on the death beat:

"Our job was to answer questions, not raise questions. We always gave the cause of death. We wrote about suicides, even though many papers won’t. The question you’re afraid to ask is the question you must ask.”

Click here for the full story.

Jim Sheeler: Professor, Pulitzer Prize Winner, Premier Obit Writer

We cannot overstate what Jim Sheeler has contributed to the art of the obituary. His outstanding work has led him to become an author, professor, Pulitzer Prize winning reporter, and so much more. Now he's being honored by Case Western Reserve University where he teaches students to write stories outside their comfort zones. All of Jim's accomplishments and contributions are rooted in his excellent obituaries written early in his career. Check out what Case Western has to say about Jim being awarded the Carl F. Wittke Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching at its May 15 commencement ceremony.

For 3 decades, Mark Zaborney has penned the last word on Toledo's dead

A column in The Blade recently highlighted the illustrious career of SPOW's very own Mark Zaborney.

Thomas Walton shared stories about Zaborney's 32-year stint as the newspaper's obituary writer, and gave particular notice to how his "comforting, soothing style puts the family at ease during a difficult time."

“For me, obituaries are the history of the community, one person at a time," Zaborney said.


Click here to read the story.

WATCH: The new teaser trailer for 'Obit'

"Obit," the new documentary from director Vanessa Gould, gives viewers a behind-the-scenes look at The New York Times‘ obituary department.

Obit editor William McDonald, along with past and present staff writers Bruce Weber, Margalit Fox, William Grimes, Douglas Martin and Paul Vitello share their thoughts about what it's like to cover the death beat for a living.

Here's the latest teaser trailer for the film:

The latest trend: Obituaries featuring political commentary

Have you checked the obituaries lately? Several members of the recently departed have been using death notices to make one final plea to voters about who they should back in November.

SPOW President Maureen O'Donnell discussed this trend with WBBM 780/105.9FM. Click here to listen to the report.

The best books about obituaries

The Society of Professional Obituary Writers website features a list of books for obituary writers and readers. Do you have any suggestions for other tomes we should add? If so, email us your favorite titles.

Obits: The Movie

OBIT, a documentary by Vanessa Gould, opens at the TriBeCa Film Festival on April 17. Starring George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, Julia Roberts, Leonardo DiCaprio et al. Thanks to The New York Times reporter Bruce Weber for giving us a heads up on this.

Click here for a trailer preview of Ms. Gould's documentary on The New York Times obituaries. I can't wait until it hits my neighborhood theaters.

Margalit Speaks

The Paris Review published an interview with the inimitable Margalit Fox, The New York Times' 20-year obituary writer, in September 2014. Here's the top of Alex Ronan's interview with Margalit that's as good a read today as it was then.


In nearly twenty years and twelve hundred obituaries, Margalit Fox, a senior writer at the New York Times, has chronicled the lives of such personages as the president of Estonia, an underwater cartographer, and the inventor of Stove Top Stuffing. An instrumental figure in pushing the obituary past Victorian-era formal constraints, Fox produces features-style write-ups of her subjects whether they’re ubiquitous public figures, comparatively unknown men and women whose inventions have changed the world, or suicidal poets.  

(Photo by Ivan Farkas)

Click here for the full interview. I not only wish I could write as well as Margalit, I wish I could give as good an interview as her.

How to write your own obituary

Not famous enough to warrant a front-page obituary in the newspaper? Or perhaps your local media outlet has a limited staff and can't cover every death in the community. If you want to have your final story told, you may just have to write it yourself.

Here are a few tips on doing so.