Marcy O’Brien

Marcy O’Brien, a weekly columnist in this newspaper, has won a second national writing award this year. O’Brien has been a longtime member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists that offers an annual writing competition for its professional membership.

Founded in 1977, the NSNC is a national organization that promotes and educates columnists, essayists, and bloggers in the craft of writing. The Society’s annual national contest highlights winners from all over the country whose writing is remarkable in the six different subject categories of General, Sports, Humor, Social Justice, Lifestyles and Crisis Commentary.

Her entry took first prize in the Lifestyles category, listing the Times Observer of Warren as her home publication. She also writes for The Post-Journal in Jamestown and the Dunkirk OBSERVER. Her winning entry consisted of two columns published in all three newspapers: from September 2023, “Ritual of respect is often powerful” and December’s “Christmas Kindness has no expiration date.”

The additional second and third place winners and honorable mentions in the Lifestyle category spanned the country from Corpus Christi to Chicago to Anchorage. This year’s entrants represented more than 70 publications.

In the spring, she won the prestigious Global First Prize in the biennial Erma Bombeck Writing Competition. The award was presented at the biennial Bombeck Writers’ Conference at the University of Dayton. Her first book, “Rounding Third,” a warm humorous collection of her columns, was published at the end of 2023.