Member Ship By Amanda Beam Membership Chair National Society of Newspaper Columnists ‘Tis the season for renewal. Spiritual renewal. Mental renewal. Even a bit of physical renewal, especially after eating all those pies and candies and carbs at those Thanksgiving meals. Why not resolve to add another renewal to your list, one that will only…
A brief NSNC history The society began in 1977, thanks to Larry Maddry of the (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot, who sent out letters to all kinds of columnists suggesting they get together and tell war stories, commiserate about editors and so forth. So a handful of columnists showed up in Virginia Beach in the first year of…
President’s Message By Jerry Zezima President National Society of Newspaper Columnists (With no apologies to Clement C. Moore, who is dead and can’t sue me.) • • • ‘Twas the time before conference for the NSNC, And members looked forward to the confab with glee. Yes, we would have it in sunny L.A., But what…
Art of Column Writing By Suzette Martinez Standring 2004-06 NSNC President It’s the season of peace and goodwill, yet the hot breath of tragedy is fresh — the Paris bombings, the Syrian refugee crisis, and gun violence in America. As readers reach out for news, journalists and columnists are first-responders. Sometimes I don’t know how…
#NSNC16 – Los Angeles By Lisa Smith Molinari Vice President National Society of Newspaper Columnists NCNC’s Conference Committee is proud to announce a sparkling marquis of speakers for the upcoming 2016 Conference held June 23-26 in Los Angeles, California. Online registration is open at tinyurl.com/nsnc16la for what will surely be a star-studded event. Pulitzer Prize…
Winners of the Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award The National Society of Newspaper Columnists presents the Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award to honor a columnist who exemplifies outstanding achievement in the tradition of Ernie Pyle. In the 1930s, Pyle wrote a national travel column for Scripps-Howard News Service, carried in some 200 newspapers. In World…
President’s Message By Jerry Zezima President National Society of Newspaper Columnists In this season of thanksgiving, so called because it’s the season in which we celebrate Thanksgiving, I would like to thank Art Buchwald for inspiring me to go into journalism and write a humor column, which has spared me the shame of getting a…
Member Ship By Amanda Beam Membership Chair National Society of Newspaper Columnists Fire baptizes those of us new to the writing business nowadays. Like risk-taking toddlers, we jump in feet first into the profession without checking if the opportunities float in hot lava or chocolate sauce. Part of the problem stems from a lack of…
#NSNC16 – Los Angeles The 2016 conference of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists will be June 23-26 in Los Angeles. Here is the secure link to register for the conference: tinyurl.com/nsnc16la . It’ll be based at the Hotel Angeleno. Here is the link for making reservations in its NSNC room block: tinyurl.com/NatlSocietyNewspaperColumnists. We have a limited…
Eileen Mitchell has added another award to her collection. The writer-author-blogger from Palatine, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, is the first-place winner in the 2015 Will Rogers Writing Contest. Her essay, “Roped in by Technology,” was judged the top entry in a national competition to find the best examples of the style of writing practiced by…
The Art of Column Writing By Suzette Martinez Standring 2004-06 NSNC President Many columnists write for free on The Huffington Post, with the aim of parlaying the exposure into money elsewhere. But does it happen? Many writers have long been angry with HP for not paying its writers, but today is that feeling just as…
President’s Message By Jerry Zezima President National Society of Newspaper Columnists It’s October, the month that ends with Halloween, so I’ll begin this message with both a trick and a treat by saying that I have great news about the 2016 NSNC conference, which will be held June 23-26 in Los Angeles: We are not,…
The October edition of The Columnist, the monthly newsletter for members of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, is out today, Thursday the first. It features more articles than usual: California Screamin’ — NSNC President Jerry Zezima previews key details of the June 2016 annual conference — in Los Angeles! Does Free Writing for HuffPost…
President’s Message By Jerry Zezima President National Society of Newspaper Columnists There is a lot to like about Will Rogers, who was a lot more than the man who never met a man he didn’t like. Born in Indian Territory (now Oologah, Oklahoma) in 1879, Rogers — part Cherokee, part cowboy, all American — was…
Rick Horowitz — a longtime member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and occasional workshop presenter at its annual conferences — will be featured in a webinar presented by the Poynter Institute’s News University. “The hour-long program, “Connecting as a Columnist: Your Voices, Your Choices,” will be aired live at 2 p.m. Eastern, Thursday,…
President’s Message By Jerry Zezima President National Society of Newspaper Columnists I barged into Spielberg’s office at DreamWorks, blew past his secretary, who was sharpening a pencil, and plopped myself down in the plush chair in front of his desk. “You owe me a big one, Steven,” I blurted. “How so, Zez?” responded Spielberg, who…
The National Society of Newspaper Columnists sponsors an annual contest for published columnists. A glance through these previous winners reveals a number of familiar, prominent names. More information on the contest is posted at among these articles. Each year, below, indicates the year the prizes were presented; the columns were published the previous year. Disclaimer:…
