Russell Frank, associate professor of communications at Penn State University and member of the NSNC Board of Directors, was recently published in The Washington Post with a by-lined story about Herb Block, a four-time Pulitzer-winning political cartoonist at The Washington Post. Frank is serving as a consultant to the Library of Congress for its Herbock Oral…
The 9th annual meeting of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists Education Foundation, as required by the IRS, will be held on Sunday, Oct. 30, 2011 (UPDATED) in the NSNC EF Chat Room. The five officers (President Jim Casto, Vice President Eric Heyl, Secretary Dave Lieber, Treasurer Joe Blundo and Assistant Secretary/Treasurer Dr. Amy…
New York Publisher, St. Martin’s Press, has announced a two-book deal between Minotaur Books and Hawaii-based Charles Memminger. Memminger has been recognized as one of the top humor columnists in the country and is a frequent winner in the humor categories of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists annual writing contest. Memminger began his three…
Here’s Your Best Column Ever By Dave Lieber Fort Worth Star-Telegram Columnist http://www.yankeecowboy.com/ Somehow very few of us in NSNC are included in the new book, Deadline Artists: America’s Greatest Newspaper Columns. So in my last column I announced my own version – NSNC Members’ Greatest Columns. I asked for your…
Columnists are writers, not publicists. If you finally write that book, what do you do with it? The idea of having to market a book can be a pretty scary one. On the NSNC discussion forum, Walter Brasch recently suggested a new book about publicity technques by a friend of his, Carolyn Howard-Johnson. If is…
New York City’s NY1 cable channel on Tuesday, Sept. 27, broadcast a roundtable on NSNC member John Avlon’s new anthology Deadline Artists. It was moderated by Avlon’s co-editor Errol Louis, who works for NY1 as host of Inside City Hall. At the table were Louis, Avlon, Stanley Crouch and Pete Hamill. Hamill is the 2005…
Milton (MA) – Writer Suzette Martinez Standring is published in a book of stories about those embarrassing “comedy-of-error” moments that make us all human. “Mug of Woe: Tales to Make You Realize Your Life is Awesome” (Amazon Digital Services, $5.99 on Kindle, 223 pages, July 2011) features essays from over forty humorists and stand-up comedians…
Jerry Zezima’s book, “Leave It to Boomer,” recently won humor book of the year honors from the Connecticut Press Club. Jerry, also, was a recent guest on “Senior Moments,” a cable access TV program on Channel 20 on Long Island, N.Y. The National Society of Newspaper Columnists was mentioned on the show. http://www.vimeo.com/28073383 Zezima writes…
Stu Bykofsky Stu Bykofsky, longtime columnist at the Philalphia Daily News, and recipient of the NSNC Will Rogers Humanitarian Award in 2003, is still at it. Past NSNC President, Bill Tammeus, commented, “Well, just so you know, he hasn’t quit doing the good things that won him that honor.” The event was the “21st Annual…
Petoskey, Michigan, is a quaint resort town in the upper part of the lower peninsula of Michigan, population around 6,000. The most exciting stories in headlines of the local paper talk about things like school lunch prices, parking in downtown, and a car accident on cemetery road. About the best thing going for Petoskey is tourism. …
David Chartrand recently wrote a column about his mother and father that appeared in the Kansas City Star called “Holding on to memories for dear life.” You can read the column on the KC Star website. Chartrand was the winner of a first place award in the 2002 NSNC writing contest. The humor and commentary…
Anna Lefler is the author of the forthcoming humor book The CHICKtionary: From A-Line to Z-Snap, the Words Every Woman Should Know, published by Adams Media. The book is scheduled for release this November and is available online for presale at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The CHICKtionary is a humorous dictionary of the words…
Mike Argento, Past President writes: I have a new novel coming out this fall and the publisher asked me for a list of people to send advance review copies. So if anyone is interested, they can e-mail me at mike@ydr.com and I’ll pass it on. The book is titled “Don’t Be Cruel” and it’s about…
Bad Dad Update The Fort Worth Weekly gives Dave Lieber a rave review on his latest book, “Bad Dad” telling more about the story covered in the book. Lieber and 11 year old son Austin were having breakfast at a McDonald’s not far from their home. Austin finished and started acting out, nagging Dad to…
President’s Message By Ben S. Pollock President, National Society of Newspaper Columnists Instead of polishing this column, I should have been sewing nametags into my clothes and shaking out my sleeping bag for WordCamp. If I showed up with that stuff, even the geeks there would laugh. We’re all geeks at WordCamp, www.wordcamp.org. The…
By Cynthia Borris NSNC Member Draped across the storefront the oversized banner beacons – Store Closing. One more time around, I circle the parking lot. Resigned to a long walk, I pull into a stall and reconsider. Do I really want to go to Borders today? Is there anything there that I need?Silent, I study…
Larry Cohen It was the author G.K. Chesterton who explained that “journalism largely consists in saying ‘Lord Jones is Dead’ to people who never knew Lord Jones was alive.” I chose to assume that Chesterton was writing about the “news” side of the business. Much of the columnist business is devoted to explaining…
