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.

Sex and cats: The 2022 people's choice awards

Sex and cats: The 2022 people’s choice awards

Analytics measure more and more in our lives. I receive a report every week sending me stats that show how Storyboard posts performed on eight different measures. Eight.Everything seems to…
Compression: It's not just for socks

Compression: It’s not just for socks

Ads on radio and news sites here in Seattle are promoting “Potted Potter,” a romp of a stage play that retells all seven Harry Potter books — more than 4,000…
A supreme beat education: The U.S. Supreme Court

A supreme beat education: The U.S. Supreme Court

 By Jacqui BanaszynskiHonorable readers, the writer stipulate: I once dreamed of attending law school.I took a few pre-law courses in college before reality, aka economics, led me away from more…
Reading and redefining the "classics"

Reading and redefining the “classics”

By Jacqui BanaszynskiA long-time aspiration of mine has been to read more of the classics. My formal dip into that kind of literature was in high school, reading and discussing…
Your next book club list: National Book Award winners and finalists

Your next book club list: National Book Award winners and finalists

The 2022 National Book Awards were announced this week. I expect I am not alone in adding the winners in fiction and nonfiction to my wish list and handing it,…
" ... a slab of muscle with Olympic speed."

” … a slab of muscle with Olympic speed.”

Physical descriptions are challenging to write. More accurately, they are challenging to write well. And yet they are standard fare in much of our journalism, especially if we’re writing profiles…
Journalistic superpowers: Curiosity, clarity and discomfort

Journalistic superpowers: Curiosity, clarity and discomfort

Kindness isn’t a word often used to describe journalism or journalists. I get that. To those who don’t do this work, we can seem abrupt, aggressive, even cynical and certainly…
The challenge of ethics in the field

The challenge of ethics in the field

I’ve always questioned the old aphorism that misery loves company. When I let myself throw a Pity Party, it’s a pretty self-absorbed affair, with room for only one in the…
When the best form for a complex narrative is a simple structure

When the best form for a complex narrative is a simple structure

A standard — some would say ideal — approach to effective narrative nonfiction is to follow a single, primary character through an intimate journey that illuminates a larger social situation.…
A political narrative shaped for a public audience

A political narrative shaped for a public audience

The headlines coming out of last week’s public hearing of the Congressional Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol focused on the unanimous vote to…