June 22, 2021

NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Headline: National Society of Newspaper Columnists Announces 2021 Contest Winners

Contact: NSNC Media Director Bonnie Jean Feldkamp, Media@columnists.com 

Columnists throughout the nation helped guide our communities through the pandemic. From making sense of fraught politics to highlighting unique community circumstances or even allowing a place for laughter, words helped keep us sane during a year like no other. The National Society of Newspaper Columnists (NSNC) has announced the annual best-of-the-best, the winners of its 2021 Column-writing Contest.

“It was a great year for the contest,” said Dr. Adam C. Earnheardt, NSNC Contest Director. “We took a chance, expanded the categories, and it paid off with some incredibly rich and insightful columns and content. I’m forever grateful to the judges for helping us navigate all the amazing work.”

One of the judges, Curtis Honeycutt, syndicated columnist of “Grammar Guy,” said, “The 2020 entries were incredibly strong. From commentary on COVID to reflections on racial injustice, last year had no shortage of informed insight from our writers. Picking winners was not an easy task.”

Over 200 entries came from 120 publications for ten categories, including humor, team, sports, lifestyles, crisis commentary, social justice, and editorial cartoon. For the first year, student members had their awards in each category. Winners can be viewed here:

https://www.columnists.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/2021-NSNC-Contest-Winners-Slides.pdf or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEJpkG4L1hk

Winning entries available online can be read here: https://www.columnists.com/2021/06/and-the-2021-winners-are/

The First Place winners in each category received a 3-year NSNC membership, a $200 value. Second and Third Place winners received a 1-year membership, a $75 value. 

NSNC is a national nonprofit organization that promotes professionalism and networking among columnists and other writers and advocates for freedom of the press across the nation. It hosts webinars for its members, but non-members can listen to past interviews with authors and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists on its YouTube channel at: youtube.com/user/columnists. 

NSNC was founded in 1977. Membership is open to general interest, humor, op-ed, video, multimedia, or other columnists – including bloggers. The organization also focuses on student outreach and tries to connect with student journalists interested in opinion writing. Academics and student columnists are eligible to join, too. Learn more at https://www.columnists.com.