Jeff Kramer Mystic Tie Award 2014 INDIANAPOLIS, June 27, 2015 — Dave Astor, a New Jersey-based writer, employed a bit of magic realism to take home the 2015 Jeff Kramer Mystic Tie Award for his creation of the top of a story from a farcical premise. The set-up, by longtime NSNC member Bill Tammeus, was…
Sitting Duck 2015 INDIANAPOLIS, June 27, 2015 — In the first-in-the-nation Indiana straw-man caucus, Donald Trump swept all other candidates for the Sitting Duck Award of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. The award is given each year to a subject or person, about which or whom columnists can easily grab, much as low-hanging fruit,…
INDIANAPOLIS, June 27, 2015 — Winners in the 2015 annual column contest of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists were announced tonight at the awards banquet of its 39th annual conference, held at The Alexander hotel. Each contestant submitted three columns or blog posts that were published in calendar year 2014. First place in each…
Art of Column Writing By Suzette Standring 2004-06 President National Society of Newspaper Columnists There are aspects aplenty to controversy. When tackling fifty shades of truth, being “gray” doesn’t grow a readership. Yet life is never black and white. Family. Politics. Feminism. Race. Religion. How best to take a decisive stand on polarizing topics? It’s…
Humor columnist Burton W. Cole‘s third “faith, fun and farm pranks” children’s novel, “Bash and the Chocolate Milk Cows,” was released May 1 from B&H Publishing Group, a division of LifeWay Christian Resources. Cole’s second novel, “Bash and the Chicken Coop Caper” (2014, B&H Kids), won the prestigious 2015 Selah Award as Best Novel for…
The 2015 Nominating Committee of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists presents the following slate of nominees to two-year positions being left vacant June 30. Secretary: Telly Halkias Treasurer: Kathy Eliscu Archivist: Dave Astor Contest chair: Michele Wojciechowski Membership chair: Amanda Beam This year’s Nominating Committee comprised NSNC former presidents Eric Heyl, Suzette Martinez Standring…
President’s Message By Jerry Zezima President National Society of Newspaper Columnists In A Christmas Story, the 1983 holiday film classic that was co-written and narrated by Indiana humorist Jean Shepherd, little Ralphie Parker wants nothing more than a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas. His efforts are initially thwarted by his mother, his teacher and…
Jeff Zaslow College Columnist Award A new graduate of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is the 2015 recipient of the Jeff Zaslow College Columnist Award of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists Education Foundation. RJ Vogt, writing for the campus newspaper The Daily Beacon, was chosen by best-selling novelist Michael Koryta, a former newspaper reporter.…
President’s Message By Jerry Zezima President National Society of Newspaper Columnists “You had the ability,” a U.S. Marine sergeant once told Pvt. Art Buchwald, “to screw up a two-car funeral. Anything you touched ceased to function.” No, Ernie Pyle wasn’t the only newspaper columnist to serve in World War II. Buchwald, whose drill instructor, Cpl.…
Finalists in the 2015 annual column contest of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists have been chosen. Their third-, second- and first-place positions will be announced at the Awards Banquet during the 2015 NSNC conference on Saturday, June 27, at The Alexander in Indianapolis. Each contestant submitted three columns or blog posts that were published…
NSNC 2015 — Indianapolis Thursday, June 25, 2015 All events are confirmed. Updates to the schedule, however, will be clearly noted. 4 – 6 p.m. — Registration (check-in time for The Alexander is 3 p.m.) 3 – 5 — NSNC board meeting 6 – 9 — Optional group dinner at Scotty’s Brewhouse, meet in lobby…
NSNC 2015 — Indianapolis Groucho: I’ll show you how to make some real money. I’m gonna hold an auction in a little while at Cocoanut Manor. You know what an auction is, don’t you? Chico: Sure. I come over from Italy on the Atlantic Auction. Groucho: (pause) Let’s go ahead as if nothing happened. I…
NSNC 2015 — Indianapolis By Michelle Freed 2015 Conference Committee National Society of Newspaper Columnists Writers are a work in progress. Always. Times change, perspectives adjust, and the quest for that perfect sentence or paragraph never ends. As Ernest Hemingway said, “We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”…
Will Rogers Humanitarian Award An award-winning writer from The Indianapolis Star has been chosen to receive the 2015 Will Rogers Humanitarian Award at the annual conference of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Marisa Kwiatkowski, an investigative reporter covering social services, will be recognized for her outstanding work on behalf of children. In nominating her…
you, the columnist By Dave Lieber Dallas Morning News columnist I’m so excited about seeing everybody at the 2015 Indianapolis National Society of Newspaper Columnists conference that I started going through my wardrobe. What to wear? So many NSNC related T-shirts. Then I realized, I could tell the story of our group through my T-shirts. (Hey,…
Remarks of Owen V. Johnson, Ph.D., for delivery at the 70th anniversary commemoration of the death of Ernie Pyle, near his grave at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Punchbowl Crater, Hawaii, April 18, 2015. Johnson is a professor emeritus of journalism at Indiana University, which the noted war correspondent, an Indiana native, attended.…
The National Society of Newspaper Columnists sets April 18 as National Columnists Day. The 2015 edition is a special one. The day was chosen because it was on April 18 that Scripps Howard war correspondent Ernie Pyle was killed, shot by a Japanese sniper on a Pacific island, in 1945. That’s 70 years ago to…
