Category: Speakers

Tulsa Writer Accepts Humanitarian Award Quoting Will Rogers

By Bob Haught NSNC Member Ginnie Graham, columnist and editorial writer for the Tulsa World, accepted the 2018 Will Rogers Humanitarian Award with a Rogers quote that expressed her main goal as a writer. Rogers said in 1931: “These people that you are asked to aid, why they are not asking for charity, they are…

Rochelle Riley’s NSNC Ties Span Two Decades

By Dave Astor NSNC Archivist Detroit Free Press columnist Rochelle Riley has a long and varied history with the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. When Riley worked for the Louisville (Ky.) Courier Journal two decades ago, she was asked by fellow CJ writer and NSNC co-founder Bob Hill to help Hill plan our organization’s 1999…

A Sense of Solidarity

By Lisa Smith Molinari NSNC President As my time as NSNC’s President grows short, I’m looking back at the eight years since I joined this unique group of journalists and realizing how NSNC has enriched my life not only professionally but personally . Of course, I learned the tricks of the trade by taking copious…

Keynote Speaker José Antonio Vargas Exemplifies the Power of Narrative

By Suzette Martinez Standring NSNC Executive Director Putting a human face to a controversial issue is more difficult when that face is your own.  NSNC keynote speaker José Antonio Vargas, founder of Define American, will share his story and the power of narrative at the NSNC’s Will Rogers Humanitarian Award banquet on Friday, June 8,…

Pyle and Pulitzer Winner Will Return to the NSNC Stage

By Dave Astor NSNC Archivist The last time Clarence Page spoke at a National Society of Newspaper Columnists conference, the syndicated Chicago Tribune writer was honored with our 2007 Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award in Philadelphia. This year, Page will return as a June 9 keynoter at the 2018 NSNC conference in Cincinnati – not…

Dessert With Discussion: Three Cincinnati Icons Come Together for NSNC18 dessert

By Bonnie Jean Feldkamp Communications Director and NSNC18 Conference Chair The Cincinnati Zoo, Graeter’s Ice Cream, and Cincinnati Public Radio come together for a special afternoon on Friday, June 8th, during the NSNC annual conference. Attendees will enjoy “Sundae Service” courtesy of historic Graeter’s Ice Cream at the Treetops Facility in the Cincinnati Zoo while…

November Offers Writers Productivity, Poultry

President’s Message By Lisa Smith Molinari NSNC President Unless you plan to spend the entire month writing your Thanksgiving dinner shopping list, November is the best time to finish those literary projects that never seem to get done. You know, the manuscript that you started years ago that is buried in your document files. Or…

Connie Schultz to Receive the 2018 Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award

By Dave Astor NSNC Archivist The National Society of Newspaper Columnists is proud to announce that our 2018 Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award recipient is…Connie Schultz! Ms. Schultz – the much-admired, widely read 2005 Pulitzer Prize winner for commentary – received the award during the NSNC’s June 7-10, 2018, conference in Cincinnati, Ohio. When asked…

Deserved Prize Not Presented in the Hotel, California

Leonard Pitts Jr.

This is the 24th in a series of articles about winners of the NSNC’s annual Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award. By Dave Astor NSNC Archivist Three great writing names of the past and present came together last year when Leonard Pitts Jr. received the 2016 Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award at the Will Rogers Ranch…

Manchester, NH, Conference Highlights

By Robert L. Haught With the umpire’s cry of “Play Ball!”, writers from 24 states unofficially opened the NSNC’s 41st annual conference with a play night. They came from coast to coast and border to border to gather in Manchester, NH, for a long weekend of fun, fellowship, and learning. Thursday offered a perfect evening for…

DERRICK JACKSON: Be Passionate, Connect, Expand

by Suzette Martinez Standring photo by Cynthia Ballard Borris In Manchester, New Hampshire, Boston Globe columnist Derrick Z. Jackson opened with lyrics from the play “Hamilton,” which he customized to columnists.  It was an apt segue into a talk by the Pulitzer finalist and multiple-award-winning writer about how he has kept readers engaged. He shared three…

Maureen Dowd Accepts Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award

    On Saturday, June 10, 2017 Maureen Dowd of the New York Times received the 2017 Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. The event was part of the NSNC’s annual conference held at the Manchester Radisson in New Hampshire. Lisa Smith Molinari is the 2017 president and Mike…

What The Hell Just Happened?

A Political Roundtable The 2017 conference in Manchester, NH, June 8-11, includes a political roundtable on Friday afternoon from 2:00 to 2:50 p.m. that will discuss all that has happened  in this oddity of a political season. Emmy award winning Scott Spradling will moderate this discussion. Spradling is a former reporter, anchor and political director for WMUR-TV in…

Find Your Literary Agent at NSNC 2017

Have you written a book? We have agents eager to hear your pitches. Here’s how it works First, find out how pitches and the types of books compel professional representation from the NSNC’s first-ever Literary Agents/Publishers’ Panel on Saturday, June 10, 2017 at the NSNC annual conference at the Manchester Radisson in NH.  Direct questions…