Larken Bradley has written more than 700 obituaries for publication. She’s the obituary writer for the West Marin Citizen, a newly launched weekly newspaper located an hour north of San Francisco across the Golden Gate Bridge in western Marin County.

Before joining the Citizen in June of 2007, she worked for nearly eight years as the obituary writer of The Point Reyes Light, where she won numerous journalism awards including seven Best Obituary honors from the National Newspaper Association.

Samples of her published obits are posted on the website of Northwestern University’s Readership Institute as examples of lively, warts-and-all obituary writing.

Larken’s work has been written up in publications including the San Francisco Chronicle Sunday Magazine, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Marin Independent Journal, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, D Magazine in Dallas and Cover magazine. She’s also been featured in radio interviews and on television programs including a KCBS special on end-of-life planning http://cbs5.com/eyeonthebay/2.436772.html.

She teaches obit writing in adult-education programs and lectures to journalism students, genealogical societies and professional organizations.

Her non-fiction book Stories of West Marin (Elephant Mountain Press), a compilation of 22 living obituaries, was released in 2005.

She is a licensed marriage and family therapist and a former social worker, with a master’s degree in clinical psychology.

Larken figures her passion for obituaries started as a five-year-old girl when she tagged along with her father, who moonlighted as a gravedigger in a rural Wisconsin cemetery.

She’s married to writer Mark Blackburn. "Obituary writing is an honor, a privilege, and great fun," Larken says. "I can’t think of anything I’d rather be doing." After she dies she expects her obit headline will read, "Obituary Writer, Six Feet Under." Larken is a member of the International Association of Obituarists http://www.obitpage.com; the Association of Personal Historians http://www. personalhistorians.org; and the Society of Professional Obituary Writers http://www.obitwriters.org.