NSNC 2026 Columnist Contest - Deadline Extended to May 1

Consider a Gift to the NSNC Education Foundation

NSNC 2026 Columnist Contest - Deadline Extended to May 1

Contest submissions will be accepted through May 1! 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.

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

Do You Have a Book in You?

Just Write

#NSNC16 – Los Angeles By Cathy Turney NSNC Conference Committee Authoring a published book is your passport to greater professional recognition. Doesn’t matter if it’s traditionally published or self-published. Well, Random House does carry some caché. The fact that you wrote a book that has an ISBN number, a Library of Congress number, that can be…

Washington Writer Wows in Williamsburg

David Broder

Lifetime Achievers This is the fifth in a series of articles about recipients of the NSNC’s annual Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award. By Dave Astor Archivist National Society of Newspaper Columnists Was Williamsburg, Virginia, a good locale for presenting Washington Post political columnist David Broder with the 1997 National Society of Newspaper Columnists’ Ernie Pyle…

The Magnificent Seven Conferences

Hilton Hartford Hotel skyline postcard

President’s Message By Jerry Zezima President National Society of Newspaper Columnists Life, goes an old saying, begins at 40. When I passed that milestone, which was easier than passing a kidney stone, I wondered: “Have I just wasted 39 years?” The answer: “Who the hell knows? But if life begins now, I am going to…

Zezima Delivers Third Book

Book jacket of Jerry Zezima's 2016 book Grandfather Knows Best

President Jerry Zezima in January published his third book Grandfather Knows Best: A Geezer’s Guide To Life, Immaturity, And Learning How To Change Diapers All Over Again. His previous books are Leave It to Boomer and The Empty Nest Chronicles. Jerry claims that “all of them are crimes against literature.” Grandfather Knows Best is based…

Walk Where Will Rogers Walked – and Wrote and Roped

Will Rogers' ranch house, now in Will Rogers State Historic Park in Pacific Palisades

#NSNC16 – Los Angeles By Robert Haught We walked in the footsteps of Ernie Pyle when we met in 2010 at Bloomington, Indiana, where he studied journalism at Indiana University. We imagined looking over the shoulder of Mark Twain as he penned the words to “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and other classics when we…

What’s Your Thang?

Hedda Hopper

you, the columnist By Dave Lieber Dallas Morning News columnist What’s your thang? Do you have something that you’re known for? What kind of writer are you? How do you explain what you do at parties? This comes up because decades after her death, columnist Hedda Hopper came back to life as actress Helen Mirren…