Magazine. Poetry. Essays. As Cormac McCarthy wrote, "Death is the major issue in the world. For you, for me, for all of us. It just is. To not be able to talk about it is very odd." For our fall issue, Conjunctions editor Bradford Morrow invited bestselling writer David Shields to gather work from a diverse cross-section of contemporary authors to address the theme of death. The subject prompted responses ranging from the profound to the jocular. The Death Issue features innovative essays and meditations by many important writers including Dave Eggers, Tom Robbins, Dr. Pauline W. Chen, David Gates, Mark Doty, Albert Goldbarth, Joe Wenderoth, Daphne Merkin, Dr. Lauren Slater, Greg Bottoms, Susan Daitch, John D'Agata, Mary Ruefle, and Christopher Sorrentino, among others. Guggenheim fellow David Shields' books include Dead Languages, Black Planet, and, most recently, the New York Times bestseller The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead (Knopf).