Margalit Fox's Black Poet Obituaries for the New York Times

By the time she retired from The New York Times in 2018, Margalit Fox wrote more than 1,400 news obituaries. Not all of her obits had been published, as the newspaper often writes the pieces years before many of its subjects die. 

Among her many compositions, Fox wrote obituaries for prominent Black poets, including Amiri Baraka, Maya Angelou, Lucille Clifton, and Jayne Cortez. Fox's obituaries for those figures were among the most thorough treatments amid several tributes that flowed forth after they died. 

That's not surprising because Fox had so much experience writing "advances" as the obit news department calls their writings about people they refer to as "pre-dead." Fox didn't need to come out of in 2019 when Toni Morrison died to memorialize the renowned novelist. Editors just needed to add the date of death to the advance that Fox had produced in previous years. 

The Times covered Angelou and Baraka for decades prior to their deaths. The obituaries on Clifton, Cortez, and Ai, though, are perhaps the most extensive pieces on those poets to appear in the paper. 

Fox’s writing assisted in ensuring that Black poets received important tributes. Her work stands as a reminder for how obituary writing can serve as both literary criticism and historical record.