The well-regarded annual contest of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists is open!
We’ll have further announcements later in the winter, mainly to serve as reminders to get your three samples per category over to NSNC headquarters, but know that our deadline this year is:
Saturday, March 15, midnight Pacific Update: Deadline extended to Tuesday, April 1, midnight Pacific
Besides immense fame — and frameable certificates — winners and finalists get a small degree of fortune: $300 for first place, $200 for second and $100 for third. Honorable mentions receive certificates. Also, all will get hearty congratulations and open envy at the awards banquet during the NSNC conference, June 26-29 in Washington.
The 2014 NSNC Column Contest considers columns published in any medium (certainly including blog posts and video and multimedia essays) published in the 2013 calendar year. While the entries are not blind submissions, the judges are longtime professional journalists or academics and independent of NSNC.
The rules are similar to those of recent years, but you should go over them for any revisions. They can be found at “2014 Column Contest Rules.”
The fee is competitve with the nation’s top contests: $45 per entry for non-NSNC members and $25 for members. You can join the society when you enter the contest — $50 dues — and taking the fee discount and enjoy NSNC benefits for the year. Contest fees can be paid via this page, “Payment for 2014 Column Contest.”
We welcome checks sent by postal mail. The payment web page also offers the secure PayPal option for credit or debit cards. Sample columns can be mailed to the NSNC as well, or exported into PDF format and emailed, as explained on the payment page. URLs of text or multimedia columns posted online are to be listed on the application form.
It’s asked every year: Yes, we welcome multiple submissions. Yet you can only submit one entry of three samples to any one category. So, if you write for a publication, send those in. Then if you also blog, submit samples for the appropriate online-only category. And so on. See the web rules page for category parameters. This increases your chances of winning, and the additional entry fees support NSNC programs.
