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.

“I spent my career writing hard news. That's me.”

“I spent my career writing hard news. That’s me.”

If you’re not a fan of “A River Runs Through It,” it can only be because you haven’t read it yet. Norman Maclean’s 1976 novella of family dynamics plays out…
How Memorial Day memories become today's stories

How Memorial Day memories become today’s stories

The Memorial Day weekend caught me by surprise. After 16 months of no travel, and a schedule dictated only by this weekly newsletter, I lost the daily rhythm of showing…
#5 rule of pitching: Make it sparkle

#5 rule of pitching: Make it sparkle

Don't lose an interesting idea in a boring pitch
How lessons from past stories can inform future stories

How lessons from past stories can inform future stories

My morning NPR ritual recently brought back two major landmarks in my journalism career this past week. May 18 was both the 41st anniversary of the eruption of Mount St.…
Writing: Nine parts mechanic, one part muse

Writing: Nine parts mechanic, one part muse

I spent the early years of my journalism career struggling with pretty much everything about the job, but especially with the writing. The reporting was often uncomfortable as I pushed…
How narrative moments can elevate a non-narrative story

How narrative moments can elevate a non-narrative story

Two foundational definitions of news are proximity and immediacy. The closer and more urgent an event or issue, the more likely it is to grab a reader’s attention. That can…
From city hall scoops to breaking news to profiles to narratives

From city hall scoops to breaking news to profiles to narratives

Lizzie Johnson’s work covering the deadly wildfires that have scorched California in recent years has earned a place in these posts in the past. Most notable was an annotation of…
The slogging reality of writing

The slogging reality of writing

The daughter of a friend reached out to me recently, seeking a bit of advice. She’s a young millennial and, after dabbling in various dabbles, she’s come back around to…
Taking the "student" out of student journalist

Taking the “student” out of student journalist

Remember Eddy Binford-Ross? If not, here’s your chance to catch up and collect a little inspiration.Eddy Binford-RossEddy is a senior in South Salem High School in Oregon, and editor of…
Some uncomfortable challenges facing journalism

Some uncomfortable challenges facing journalism

Some core questions I have about the challenges facing journalists were revived by a few things I read last week. None were surprising, but all carried nagging concerns that date…