2010 Column-Writing Contest OPEN
The NSNC 2010 Column Writing Contest is now open with five categories for print columns and two categories for online columns. CLICK HERE FOR complete rules and ENTRY FORM. Start getting your columns together now.
1st Prize $300 - 2nd Prize -$200 - 3rd Prize - $100
The deadline to enter is March 15, 2010. Entry fee is $25 per entry for members and $45 for non-members. An entry consists of three columns published between January 1, 2009, and December 31, 2009.
Bloggers are again eligible to submit entries and special rules for this category are given. In addition, online columnists can enter in a seperate category, including those who write online in places other than on established newspaper sites.
Winners will be announced at the Annual NSNC Conference in Bloomington, Ind., July 8-11, 2010 and also announced in the post conference edition of the NSNC Newsletter, and on the NSNC website, www.columnists.com.
_____________________________
2009 Column Writing Contest Winners
The winners of the annual NSNC Column-Writing Contest were announced in Ventura on Saturday evening, June 27th, at the dinner. A complete list of winners along with judges comments can be seen below.
Cash prizes were awarded in all the categories as follows: 1st $300, 2nd $200, 3rd $100. Samples of the winning columns are on the website.
Hundreds of columnists compete in the contest each year for cash prizes. The contest has five print categories and two online categories. Breaking with precedent, a category for bloggers made blog columns eligible to enter for the first time ever. In addition, rules for online columnists were changed in order to permit more writers to enter, including those who write online columns in places other than on established newspaper sites
WINNING COLUMN SAMPLES HERE
CONTEST WINNERS
Newspapers Over 100,000 circulation
General Interest
Judge: Alan Miller
1st - Tom Rademacher, The Grand Rapids Press
Tom Rademacher’s columns reach out and grab readers by the throat – the heart, actually – and pull them headlong into his stories. At a time when readers complain more than ever about newspapers being filled with nothing but bad news, we can point to Rademacher’s columns and say they’re wrong. There are bright spots amid the bad news, and they are the stories of love and generosity and community spirit that Rademacher shares so eloquently with his readers. We could all use a tall drink of Rademacher on a regular basis these days.
2nd - Mary Curtis, The Charlotte Observer/The Washington Post
Mary Curtis takes on tough issues – not to mention local authorities – with a no-nonsense, I’m-talking-to-you-Buster style. She doesn’t mince words, and readers have to appreciate that she writes tight and makes her case in quick, compelling fashion.
3rd - Rick Green, The Hartford Courant
Rick Green found an issue and latched onto it. His reporting shows serious flaws in the Connecticut probate-court system, which apparently exploits vulnerable senior citizens rather than protect them. His series of columns on the topic made a clear-cut case for reform and got the attention of the governor.
Honorable Mention - Dave Lieber, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Dave Lieber’s columns quickly and easily create a sense of outrage in a reader. He writes about rip-offs, scams and jerks who take advantage of the most vulnerable people in society. He exposes wrongs and wrong-doers. Every city needs a Dave Lieber.
Humor
Judge: Michael McLeod
1st - Katy St. Clair, SF Weekly, San Francisco
First place to Kathy St. Clair, of the San Francisco Weekly, for being both pensive and amusing in describing her visits to an array of local lounges. Only St. Clair would use a trip to a bar called "Casanova" as an excuse to quote from Aesop, or work references to Fred Flintstone and the 1936 Olympic games into the same column. Her humor often coses with a history lesson, literary notation, a reference to her mother, and a chaser of pathos, as she sagely encounters an array of sloshing drunks, leering barkeeps, Glengarry Glen Ross-quoting salesmen and predators and prey of various spots and stripes.
2nd - Mike Hendricks, The Kansas City Star
Second place: Mike Hendricks, of the Kansas City Star, for wry observations about community events, be they as bizarre as a random nail-gun accident or as routine as the approach of Father's Day. Wiat a minute. That was all in the same column. But that's Hendricks' savvy approach, finding the absurd in the everyday, and apparently, in Kansas City, there's plenty of it to go around.
3rd - Samantha Bennett, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Third place: To Samantha Bennett, of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, for columns stemming from the latest Costco bargain (an 18-guage steel coffin for $1,299.99) to a public school policy that sets 50 percent as the minimum score on assignments and tests. ("If you learn these math skills well, you can probably get a job in the mortgage industry.")
Newspapers Less Than 100,000 circulation
General Interest
Judge: Alan Miller
1st - Sam Cook, The News-Press
Sam Cook puts readers in touch with everyday people and raw emotion. He has a conversational writing style – short, simple, powerful sentences that put readers in the chair next to Cook as he tells stories of outrage or tender mercy. He calls them like he sees them and takes on all comers, including local power brokers such as a local sheriff playing politics.
2nd - Adam McCune, New Hampshire Union
Adam McCune writes about the struggles of a common man – from the stress and pain of mortgage refinancing to the stress and pain of tracking down that must-have Christmas gift. The stories are conversational and from the heart. The average reader will look at McCune’s columns and see herself, nudge her husband and say, “We’re not alone. Here’s someone going through the same problems we’re having.”
3rd - Ken Tingley, The Post-Star
Ken Tingley for his interesting commentary on diverse topics
Honorable Mention - Chuck Strouse, Miami New Times
Chuck Strouse’s columns are insightful, edgy and raw, with description so vivid and blunt that it can be disturbing. And that can be a good thing, if the goal is to motivate readers to right a wrong.
Humor
Judge: Michael McLeod
1st - John Boston, The Signal, Santa Clarita, CA
First Place: To John Boston, for a selection of columns that ran in the Santa Clarita Valley Signal. Boston's canny, descriptive, and - let's be frank - vaguely disturbing lunacy towers not only over this own valley but over many another. He's a cowboy Kafka, condemned to colic and consternation over such things as his sister's gift of a misshapen sweater that "fit neigher chimpanzee stretched in a Spanish Inqusition rack nor any known Ripley's Museum mondo child and was the hue of coyote mange." Or perhaps he's being tortured into immobility by an arctic glare from his wife, a woman apparently endowed with enough psychic power to turn a bowl of chili into a block of ice. Boston suggests that she is from another planet. We suggest, based on these columns, that she not the only one.
2nd - Elyse Wanshel, Miami New Times
Second place to Elyse Wanshel of the Miami New Times, for a nervy and inventive nightlife column that focuses on embarrasing adult behavior, much of it her own.
3rd - Trisha Blanchet, Lowell (MA) Sun
Third place to Trisha Blanchet, of the Lowell, Mass. Sun. A humorous column about motherhood is tricky business. Blanchet's is touching and funny witghout being cloying, whether she's consoling other mothers for bouts of temporary insanity or relaying her son's Christmas request for "cars that shoot lava at each other."
Online
Judge: Dan Ray
1st - Kelli Wheeler and Jen Hall, sacmomsclub.com, The Sacramento Bee
Tale of Two Mommies by Kelli Wheeler and Jen Hall is a column in an unusual format -- a written-out conversation about family life between two smart women -- but it works. It wraps in personal anecdotes, sage advice and useful tips on everything from family trips to when to 'fess up about Santa.
2nd - Joel Schwartzberg, The Star-Ledger, Newark, N.J. & The Huffington Post
Joel clearly cares about his New Jersey community, even if he used to get regularly lost in it. In his columns, what can begin as a well-researched opinion piece about smoking can morph into fantasm and funny "what if" speculation.
3rd - Judy Gruen, Aish.com, Los Angeles
Judy writes for Jewlarious.com, which is as it sounds, a humor site aimed at Jews. Judy looks at everyday life and doesn't always like what she sees, and takes her revenge with a wickedly funny pen. While the Jewish jokes abound -- the scene she writes about sneaking kosher food past suspicious airport security workers in Albuquerque is a riot -- there's plenty there for goyim to enjoy, too.
Honorable Mention - Walter Brasch, American Reporter
Walter Brasch for his thorough dissecting of Bush era policies
Honorable Mention - Lloyd Garver, cbsnews.com, Pacific Palisades, CA
Lloyd Garver for pointing out the folly of grownup obsession over kids playing basketball.
Honorable Mention - Ben Pollock, benpollock.com/brick, Fayetteville, AR
Ben S. Pollock for the sweet personal observations about Northwest Arkansas life
Blog Column
Judge: Michael McLeod
1st - Patricia Coakley, singleforareason.com,
First place: To Patricia Coakley, for her "Single For a Reason." In this personal blog about living single, Coakley rails so eloquently against the things that irritate her that is doesn't much matter what she happens to be railing against. Maybe it's Alzeheimer's disease. Manybe it's a local bakery's decision to substitute a supposedly healthier but much blander version of the bread - rosemary onion focaccia - that had been her favorite. Outrage is healthy, too. A reading of Coakley's blog can leave you with the impression - ok, illusion - that something just scoured some of the cholesterol out of your blood vessels.
2nd - Stephen Lemons, phoenixnewtimes.com
Second place: To Stephen Lemons of the Phoenix New Times, for the painstaking transparancy and sustained vigor of his crusade against the tactics of Maricopa County Sheriff Joseph Arpaio. Lemons' encounters with Arpaio sometimes appear to be on the verge of hand-to-hand combat as he details the sheriff's controversial strategies in dealing with immigration issues.
3rd - Will Bunch, Philadelphia Daily News
Third place: To Will Bunch, for the raw eloquence of his political observations in philly.com as he responds and reacts, viscerally but acutely, to the events, issues and personalities of the 2008 Presidential campaign.
Honorable Mention - Joel Schwartzberg, The Huffington Post
Honorable mention: To Joel Schwartzbert, for his Huffington Post humor column.
Honorable Mention - Roy Edroso, Village Voice
Honorable mention: To Roy Edroso, for his Village Voice blog about the right-wing blogosphere.
Notes/Items
Judge: Tim Miller
1st - Mark Lane, Dayton Beach News-Journal
Mark Lane writes tight, knows his community (audience), chooses topics sure to be discussed at the water cooler or the evening dinner table and, perhaps most importantly, brings a smile to the reader’s face. His musings about cell phones, hurricanes, bicycle fashionistas and campaign bumper stickers were a joy to read. His praise of “flip-flops” would be a good read by anyone living anywhere (and a great discussion point for students of all ages.) Kudos to Mr. Lane.
2nd - Dave Lieber, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Members of the Fourth Estate play many important roles in society. Among them is that of ‘watchdog’ — the reporter/writer/editor who is adept at ‘afflicting the comfortable, and comforting the afflicted.’ Mr. Lieber fills that role very well. Mr. Lieber does not engage in the frequent chest thumping that accompanies many of the ‘I am on your side’ investigators who spend far too much time telling you how great they are rather than focusing on the problem. Mr. Lieber gets quickly to the point about who was wronged and how — and he does it covering topics of wide general interest. It’s a safe bet that businesses around Fort Worth read his articles faithfully — and with some trepidation.
3rd - Bob Dyer, Akron Beacon Journal
Economy of words is becoming more and more prized in our hectic society and Mr. Dyer provides an excellent example of a writer who can make you think, make you chuckles, maybe make you mad, and do it succinctly. Mr. Dyer found fodder from salad dressing, the name of a school name and even generally dry statistics. His quick wit and brisk writing is to be appreciated.
Honorable Mention - Smiley Anders, The Advocate, Baton Rouge, LA
Mr. Anders did a nice job of taking a personal story and making it something bound to make all readers enjoy as part of their holiday season.
Honorable Mention - Russ Lemmon, Vero Beach (Fla.) Press Journal
Mr. Lemmon is obviously well in tune with his town, and provides an interesting touch to local platitudes and politics.
7/5/08
Home | Contest | Convention | Workshop | Join | Scholarship | Links | Contact | Submissions
|
