Category: Advocacy

Wolfgang’s books

Niesielski publishes a humor column collection and a humor-fantasy novel, e-book and paper NSNC member Wolfgang Niesielski writes that he has two books published and available for sale at Amazon.com. The first one is a collection of some of his humor columns over the years, and it’s titled The Alien in my E-Mail and Other…

The Debit Side of the Clarion-Ledger

Clarion-Ledger, Jackson, Miss.

Love’s Columns’ Labor’s Lost? By Ben S. Pollock NSNC Director of Online Media What’s the value of a columnist writing for no pay for a city’s newspaper (rather, its website), which it terms “a labor of love”? It turns out to be a trick question, or at least with no easy answer. A highlight of…

Smiley Has a New Book

Shakespeare and Company bookshop, Paris

Longtime NSNC member, and multiple contest winner Smiley Anders has a new book, his second. It’s Smiley! A Laughing Matter. Anders, with the Advocate of Baton Rouge, La., explains it’s about half autobiography and half items from past columns. Here’s the blurb about it: “This book not only contains funny stories from his columns published…

Update: Second Serial Plagiarist Accused

Polygraph Letter Copier Jefferson Used

By Ben Pollock President National Society of Newspaper Columnists Updates on the topic follow the article, including: “Suspected Plagiarist Resigns” George Waters Longtime NSNC member George Waters, having read recently about a newspaperman stealing columns from a number of humor writers, “Googled” some of own better lines and found he was paid the compliment of…

Sitting Duck for 2012 — U.S. Economy

The 2012 Winner of the Infamous Sitting Duck Award is The American Economy. Why? The American economy – Nobody likes it, and you can find statistics to back up anything you want to say about it. The National Society of Newspaper Columnists created the Sitting Duck Award, an honor bestowed each year on the crème…

Highlights of Conference – Day 2

The second day of the NSNC conference opened with breakfast in the beautiful Magnolia Room of the Macon Marriott where columnists heard from humorist speaker, author, and columnist Lauretta Hannon, the Cracker Queen, who told about her childhood and how she has overcome adversity and poverty with a sense of humor and a memoir about…

Columnists select Dave Barry for Lifetime Achievement Award

Dave Barry. Photo by daniel portnoy www.danielportnoy.com MACON, Ga. — Pulitzer Prize-winning humor columnist Dave Barry will be honored with the 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. The announcement was made Thursday night, May 3, in Macon, Ga., at the top of the society’s 2012 national conference, where New York…

Macon Conference Opens

NSNC conference, Macon 2012

President Ben Pollock welcomed NSNC conferees, guests, speakers, honorees, newcomers and returnees to the 36th annual NSNC conference. President Pollock said, “…this is our first visit to the Deep South. As a third-and-fourth generation Arkansan, I proudly say, ‘It’s high cotton.’” A wide range of activities have been planned by host, Ed Grisamore — too…

NSNC Board Meets

The Board of Directors of NSNC met May 3, 2012 in Macon, Georgia, prior to the annual conference. Ed Grisamore said he is happy to have us in Macon and expects to have 50-60 people at each conference event.  St. Petersburg FL was decided on at a previous board meeting as the site of the…

Meet Will Rogers’ Great-Grandson

A late – but most welcome – addition to the Macon 2012 program is Josh Rogers Leuty, a great-grandson of Will Rogers.   Leuty, 44, was raised on a dairy farm near Bakersfield, CA by parents Eric and Bette Rogers Brandin. His grandfather, California rancher Jim Rogers, was the last surviving offspring of Will and…

Embed, Blog, and Beyond

By Suzette Martinez Standring NSNC Past President   Vlogging, blogging, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter – it’s all under the umbrella of social media and I’m dog paddling in the deluge. Recently, I attended the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop in Dayton, both as a presenter (Hypnotic Recall Fills the Creative Well), and as a seeker of information…

New Member has New Book

New NSNC member, Cathy Turney, announces her recently published book, “Tales of a Codependent Pet Owner.” Cathy is a San Francisco Bay Area author who has had humor stories published in the San Francisco Chronicle, Bay Woof Magazine and the Contra Costa Times. Cathy recently won America’s Funniest Humor Showcase awards for her two stories, “An ‘i’…

You had questions? EBWW 2012 had answers!

A humor writer reports back from the recent Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop. By Jody Worsham If you went to EBWW 2012 looking for answers, you weren’t disappointed.  Whatever question you had, it was answered.  And if you didn’t like the answer you got in the first session, you could just go to the next one and…

Register Now for the May in Macon Conference

By Ed Grisamore, NSNC Conference Chair REGISTER NOW: Registration is open for the 36th annual Conference of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists in Macon, Ga., May 3-6, 2012. “Macon Whoopee” is the theme for this year’s conference, our first in the Old South. We’ll meet and mingle with New York Times columnist Gail Collins…

Auction Update – Be on TV with Nancy Grace

View from Serenity Cabin at Howe Sound, British Columbia

UPDATE Additional item for silent auction donated by Nancy Grace: Tour of CNN and appearance on TV with Nancy Grace. Highest bidder in spirited bidding was Cappy Hall Rearick www.simplysoutherncappy.com whose high bid bought her a priceless opportunity. It pays to show up at NSNC events as you never know what opportunity might present itself. By Eric Heyl…

New Candidate on Slate of Officers

There’s a new candidate on the slate of officers proposed for election at the annual membership meeting on Sunday, May 6 in the closing session of the 2012 Conference in Macon, Ga. It’s none other than the outgoing president, Ben Pollock. When Tracy Beckerman withdrew as a nominee for the Web Editor position for personal…

Contest Finalists for 2012

trophies image

By Mike Deupree NSNC Contest Chair The annual writing contest of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists is over. The judges have labored long and hard. The decisions have been made. And the winners are … Going to be announced in about a month. The suspense won’t end until the awards banquet Saturday, May 5,…