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!

Does Promotion and Marketing Exhaust You, Too?

Art of Column Writing By Suzette Martinez Standring 2004-06 President National Society of Newspaper Columnists Promote, stand out, and work social media! Gee, I’m exhausted. I adore writing, but I am bothered and bewildered by all that I must do “to get it out there.” I only like twittering when birds do it. Is there…

Contesting a Foolish Worry

Click image for rules and entry form

President’s Message By Eric Heyl President National Society of Newspaper Columnists In retrospect, the email’s timing could have been better. I don’t recall much about the day except a random check of my inbox that proved startling. It was a communique from Sheila Stroup, a columnist from the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, whom I didn’t…

2013 Column Contest Is Open!

Thomas Jefferson's portable desk. Yes, the one on which he wrote the Declaration of Independence. From the Smithsonian.

By Mike Deupree NSNC Contest Chair Remember those columns or blogs you wrote during 2012 that produced all the letters, e-mails, texts messages and telephone calls? The ones that caused readers to say that you had changed their lives, or to threaten that they would change yours? Those sound like possible winners in the annual…

In the March Newsletter

The March issue of The e-Columnist, emailed to all members March 1, contains news of interest: President Eric Heyl recalls his first contest win. Deadline for entries April 1. Lifestyle speakers for June conference have varied backgrounds. Suzette Standing has an informative interview with former syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman. East Texas columnist, 101, is a…

Summer Conference Offers Sponsorship Opportunities

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

Underwriters of Hartford Convention Receive Substantial Recognition Sponsorship opportunities are still available for the 37th annual conference of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists in Hartford, Conn., June 27-30, 2013. For more information, please complete our Contact Form right away. We invite foundations, trade associations and nonprofits; and corporations, small businesses and individuals to consider…

2013 Conference: Lifestyles and the Writing Life

Billiard room - Mark Twain House, Hartford, Conn.

Hartford hosts columnists, bloggers June 27-30 Updates: Discount extended, now May 1. Speakers: Alan Zweibel and Steve Courtney added. Direct payment buttons added. Want a seminar-packed weekend in a hothouse of fertile creativity? That’s right, Hartford, Conn., home of Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Wallace Stevens, to say nothing of a number of contemporary,…