Category: Articles

Miscellaneous articles.

To go or not to go? That is the question.

by Daniela Gitlin, MD  The NSNC conference is scheduled to happen live June 9-12, 2022 at the Doubletree by Hilton, Birmingham Perimeter Park in Alabama. You, like me, might be of two minds about attending. You might have various COVID-related concerns. But also, you might really, really want to go.  Do you crave contact, with real people, in real-time,…

Join Me in the Zoom Where It Happens

Curtis HoneycuttNSNC Treasurer and Conference Committee I can’t begin to explain how much the NSNC has meant to me over the past three years. I met many of you word warriors in Cincinnati in 2018, back when it was possible to rub shoulders with other humans. In 2019, many of us spent a weekend in…

Tony Messenger: How One Story Snowballed into a Series That Changed Missouri Law

By Suzette Martinez StandringDirector Emeritus Newsroom reporters and columnists may see themselves when NSNC Member and metro columnist Tony Messenger of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch will share how paying attention, listening, and strong storytelling led to a series of columns that won him the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. He will be a featured speaker…

The Depressing Sprint to Jettison Print

Early in the morning of Feb. 26, the last edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that would ever be printed on a Friday landed on stoops, porches, sidewalks, lawns, and hedges with the indifference most of us had grown used to over the years.

Editor Etiquette for Freelance Writers

An editor’s job is to manage content and shape submissions to match their publication’s style and objective. Working with freelancers is part of that job and there are a few simple things that will help you stand out among your colleagues and be deemed “a dream to work with.”

Column Writing Is Your Superpower to Enact Change in Your Community

By NSNC President Tony Norman and NSNC Communications Director Bonnie Jean Feldkamp   Columns, as opposed to explanatory news stories, are uniquely positioned in the journalistic ecosystem to get things done. Unlike our just-the-facts reporter counterparts, we columnists get to directly call out our elected officials and community leaders, hold them to account, and ask for…

How I Face the Blank Page

By Leighann LordNSNC Member Astronauts have to climb into the rocket. Mechanics have to get under the hood of the car. Writers have to sit down and write. But it’s complicated. Here’s my process: Pour a fresh cup of coffee. Open my journal to a clean page.Grab a pen. Stare at the page. Have a moment of clarity…

An Inspiring NSNC Webinar Is In the Books

By Tony NormanNSNC President My first NSNC webinar will probably rank as my favorite virtual interview of the pandemic age for quite a while. Last month, I had the pleasure of interviewing Pamela Paul, editor of The New York Times Sunday Book Review and grand Poobah of all its book coverage throughout the week. The weekly podcast she…

George Will: Questions and Answers

By Steve AustNSNC Executive Director As the writer of thousands of columns, the author of 19 books, and a frequent TV presence, George Will looms as one of the nation’s leading conservative commentators. His erudite perspectives provide thoughtful insights on an array of economic and social issues – and, regarding his other overarching passion, baseball.…

How One Guided-Imagery Session Saved My Book

By Lisa Smith MolinariStars and Stripes columnist, author of The Meat and Potatoes of Life: My True Lit Com (2020), and former NSNC President I arrived at Suzette’s summer house in Cape Cod believing that I was there to sample her famous gourmet cuisine and chat. The fact that she was leading a guided-imagery session…

How the NSNC Helped Me Discover My Own Columnist Heritage

By Cole ImperiNSNC Member I am a Thanatologist, someone who studies death and dying.  I’m definitely the only one of those in my family.  My work in this field eventually led me towards genealogy, which is, essentially, the study of the dead. Who were these dead people I descended from, anyway? For many family genealogists,…