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
- Soft-shell crabs
- Crawfish boils
- Peanut butter (crunchy, please)
- Coffee with chicory
- Good friends
- The New York Times crossword puzzles
- “Casablanca”
- Rugby shirts
- The sound of laughter
- New Orleans restaurants
Dear Mr. Pope,
You are known for writing excellent obituaries for beloved New Orleans natives. I am wondering if you might be able to write an obituary about writer (novelist/poet) James Nolan. His funeral is coming up on Sept 10, and the funeral home is requesting an obituary for the Times-Picayune (we’ve paid for the paper to run the obit). I had a friend of his write something, but it turned into a literary piece that was rather personal and didn’t quite fit the newspaper. James Nolan was, perhaps surprisingly, a fan of pomp, circumstance, and tradition and was the classic New Orleanian. Perhaps you’d be better able to scribe this piece. I can send you all the information about him, of course. Warm regards, Janis Turk