John Pope

John Pope, a New Orleans reporter since 1973, was a member of the Times-Picayune’s team that won two Pulitzer Prizes in 2006 for coverage of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at  the University of Texas, where he worked on the Daily Texan, the student newspaper, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. A contributing writer for the Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate, Pope is the author of Getting Off at Elysian Fields, an anthology of his obituaries and funeral stories, and a coauthor of Building on the Past: Saving Historic New Orleans. He is serving his second six-year term on the Phi Beta Kappa Senate, and he is a member of the Society of Professional Obituary Writers, whose members refer to themselves as Grimmies.

Ten Things I Can’t Do Without

1. Soft-shell crabs
2. Crawfish boils
3. Peanut butter (crunchy, please)
4. Coffee with chicory
5. Good friends
6. The New York Times crossword puzzles
7. “Casablanca”
8. Rugby shirts
9. The sound of laughter
10. New Orleans restaurants