Author

Jacqui Banaszynski

@JacquiB

Jacqui Banaszynski retired as the endowed Knight Chair in Editing at the Missouri School of Journalism in 2017, is editor at Nieman Storyboard, and a faculty fellow at the Poynter Institute. She won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize in feature writing for “AIDS in the Heartland,” a series about a gay farm couple facing AIDS, and was a finalist for the 1986 Pulitzer in international reporting for her account of the sub-Saharan famine.

Ukraine coverage: The press rises to cover a grinding war

Ukraine coverage: The press rises to cover a grinding war

By Jacqui BanaszynskiA large property sprawls on the north side of the state highway that runs from mountain cabin in the Washington Cascades to the town where I buy groceries.…
Squirrels (and newspapers) as threatened species

Squirrels (and newspapers) as threatened species

By Jacqui BanaszynskiLet’s, for a moment, consider squirrels. Stick with me. There’s a reason for this, and it has to do with things threatened and endangered.More specifically to that point,…
Intimate stories in abstract numbers

Intimate stories in abstract numbers

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…
Who says political writing has to be boring?

Who says political writing has to be boring?

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…
"... how the persons with jobs do the jobs and all the living as well."

“… how the persons with jobs do the jobs and all the living as well.”

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…
How empathy can tell a more honest story of gun-violence trauma

How empathy can tell a more honest story of gun-violence trauma

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…
How to exercise your descriptive muscles

How to exercise your descriptive muscles

By Jacqui BanaszynskiIt’s a common theme when a Storyboard contributor interviews a journalist about a descriptive analogy or metaphor in a written piece: How did you come up with that…
The not-so-secret secret to winning a Pulitzer

The not-so-secret secret to winning a Pulitzer

By Jacqui BanaszynskiIt was a favorite diversion of mine, when I was teaching at the Missouri School of Journalism, to wander down the hall from my office to the newsroom…
Writing practice with a purpose

Writing practice with a purpose

By Jacqui BanaszynskiAs we turned the last pages of 2022, I am pondering the years past and the year ahead and the concept of writing practice.I’ve spent my professional life…
Tools and inspiration at your fingertips: The 2022 editor's favorites

Tools and inspiration at your fingertips: The 2022 editor’s favorites

As the year comes to a close, we bring you our version of the best-of lists. We started with the reader’s choice awards: the Storyboard posts that ranked in the…