NSNC 2026 Columnist Contest - Now Open

Sunshine Week March 15-21, 2026

Consider a Gift to the NSNC Education Foundation

Join NSNC and Reap the Benefits!

NSNC 2026 Columnist Contest - Now Open

Contest submissions now open! We are accepting entries from columnists, bloggers, and serial essayists  for our 2026 Annual Columnist Contest (for work published in 2025). We will accept entries from columnists, bloggers, and serial essayists published in 2025.  Everyone is welcome to submit. You don’t have to be an NSNC member.

Sunshine Week March 15-21, 2026

We’re counting down to #SunshineWeek 2026, March 15-21. Together, we champion #OpenRecords and #OpenGovernment nationwide March 15-21. #FOIA #transparency. Free resources: sunshineweek.org

Consider a Gift to the NSNC Education Foundation

The National Society of Newspaper Columnists Education Foundation is a tax-exempt charitable organization [501(c)3] devoted to the education and training of new and experienced columnists everywhere. Donate here: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/NSNCEdFnd

Join NSNC and Reap the Benefits!

We are excited for What’s in-store for NSNC members this year. We are gearing up to launch the NSNC Annual Columnist Contest on January 15, so you’ll want to be sure your membership is up-to-date. Also, if you have ideas, suggestions, etc., please share them with our President Meredith Cummings at meredithcummings@gmail.com or Executive Director Ginny McCabe at nsncdirector@gmail.com. Thank you for your support of NSNC!

Walt, It’s About Time

Pennsylvania Press Club

Longtime NSNC member Walt Brasch has received the Lifetime Communicator of Achievement award from the Pennsylvania Press Club, reported a newspaper that runs his column. The News Eagle said Walt received the honor June 3 in Gettysburg at the club’s annual dinner. The lifetime is the state press club’s highest award, recognizing both significant journalistic…

Wolfgang’s books

Niesielski publishes a humor column collection and a humor-fantasy novel, e-book and paper NSNC member Wolfgang Niesielski writes that he has two books published and available for sale at Amazon.com. The first one is a collection of some of his humor columns over the years, and it’s titled The Alien in my E-Mail and Other…

The Debit Side of the Clarion-Ledger

Clarion-Ledger, Jackson, Miss.

Love’s Columns’ Labor’s Lost? By Ben S. Pollock NSNC Director of Online Media What’s the value of a columnist writing for no pay for a city’s newspaper (rather, its website), which it terms “a labor of love”? It turns out to be a trick question, or at least with no easy answer. A highlight of…

Copy and Paste: Avoiding Plagiarism

Polygraph Letter Copier Jefferson Used

Attribution is the antidote to plagiarism you, the columnist By Dave Lieber www.YankeeCowboy.com Angry as all get out, as Texans like to say. That’s how I feel when I think about what happened in recent months to many of our NSNC colleagues. More than their words were stolen when their columns were plagiarized in separate…

Smiley Has a New Book

Shakespeare and Company bookshop, Paris

Longtime NSNC member, and multiple contest winner Smiley Anders has a new book, his second. It’s Smiley! A Laughing Matter. Anders, with the Advocate of Baton Rouge, La., explains it’s about half autobiography and half items from past columns. Here’s the blurb about it: “This book not only contains funny stories from his columns published…

Larry’s Inaugural Address

New Orleans Item newsroom, circa 1900

President’s Message By Larry Cohen President National Society of Newspaper Columnists Larry Cohen With the financial help of my mysterious Political Action Committee in the Cayman Islands; with a last-minute surge of support from the National Rifle Association; and with my foreign policy promise to transform Syria into a Disney amusement park; I was able…