The experienced author and magazine writer takes on the aftermath of California's biggest wildfire with insecurity and empathy

By Jacqui BanaszynskiThe details are what always hold me.The numbers matter, of course. Horrible numbers that matter horribly. I follow them as they rise. When the news of the shallow…

By Jacqui BanaszynskiI sat down to watch the State of the Union address this week out of a sense of obligation and, to be honest, a somewhat dark curiosity. How…

Timed free writing — no stopping, no correcting, no fretting — can leapfrog mental paralysis to a "shitty" but valuable first draft

Writing scholar and author Roy Peter Clark responded to a quirky (and somewhat brash) letter with a lifetime list of writing wisdom

Chuck Haga and his students exchange favorite music of their generations to explore metaphor and meaning that can make writing sparkle

It’s a common and happy reframe among my retired friends: They are busier than they’ve ever been. They can’t remember how they managed to do all the things they needed…

By Jacqui BanaszynskiMy fingers felt heavy on the keyboard last week as I edited two special posts that were long in the making. The posts themselves explore the kind of…

By Mallary Tenore TarpleyWashington Post reporter John Woodrow Cox has spent six years covering stories of gun violence and children, fashioning a beat out of one of America’s most heartbreaking…

By Chip Scanlan When Rick Rojas became a national correspondent for The New York Times, a colleague told him to focus on the second word of his new title. As correspondents,…