Author

Jacqui Banaszynski

@JacquiB

Jacqui Banaszynski retired as the endowed Knight Chair in Editing at the Missouri School of Journalism in 2017, is editor emerita 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.

Nut grafs: Triptych III ~ Sex, Springsteen and late-night rambles

Nut grafs: Triptych III ~ Sex, Springsteen and late-night rambles

EDITOR’S NOTE: Last week and this, we’re offering support to editors and educators for how to guide writers through an effective nut graf — however you spell it and whatever…
Nut grafs: Triptych II ~ Pointed questions, including WHOGAS?

Nut grafs: Triptych II ~ Pointed questions, including WHOGAS?

EDITOR’S NOTE: Last week and this, we’re offering support to editors and educators for how to guide writers through an effective nut graf — however you spell it and whatever…
Nut grafs: A triptych of teaching approaches

Nut grafs: A triptych of teaching approaches

EDITOR’S NOTE: Last week and this, we’re offering support to editors and educators for how to guide writers through an effective nut graf — however you spell it and whatever…
Literary Forensics: How to edit (and self-edit) from the inside out

Literary Forensics: How to edit (and self-edit) from the inside out

A simple diagnostic tool can help writers and editors identify patterns that tighten and strengthen copy
Jim Sheeler turned the simple obituary into a high and reverent art

Jim Sheeler turned the simple obituary into a high and reverent art

A brief anecdote in a Denver Post story about Pulitzer Prize winner Jim Sheeler describes how a new reporter was seated next to him in the newsroom of the Rocky…
Collected reflections on John Hersey's "Hiroshima"

Collected reflections on John Hersey’s “Hiroshima”

Today is the 76th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. That’s not a notable number in the rather arbitrary realm of anniversary stories. But the event itself just seems to…
"... and the cold came biting ..."

“… and the cold came biting …”

—Peter Geye in his novel "The Lighthouse Road"
#6 rule of pitching: Stay focused

#6 rule of pitching: Stay focused

A good pitch is not a scattershot, but a clearly stated central idea or question that is fresh, relevant, and a fit for the publication

Industry news that honors the craft and reflects the times

Even the most dramatic news about the journalism is seldom a surprise. Budgets are cut. Awards are given. Veterans retire or are bought out. Book contracts are signed.But collecting a…
The journalistic dangers of binary thinking

The journalistic dangers of binary thinking

Meet Bethany Grace Howe, above. I met her a little over 10 years ago when she came to the Missouri School of Journalism as a nontraditional graduate student. “Nontraditional” essentially…