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.

"His work is a parable ..."

“His work is a parable …”

Before you think this clause opens to a sentence and story about religion, because it leans on the word “parable,” it doesn’t — unless your embrace of religion, of whatever…
October 28, 2020
Story roots and consequences

Story roots and consequences

Some years ago, I was involved in the edit of a story about children born to developmentally disabled people. In 1927, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld states’ rights to forcibly…
October 20, 2020
#2 rule of pitching: Respect submission protocols

#2 rule of pitching: Respect submission protocols

Following form doesn't have to limit creativity, and shows you are a professional
October 9, 2020
#1 rule of pitching: Study the publication

#1 rule of pitching: Study the publication

Researching the basics of the site you're pitching to — story length, purpose and tone — reveals respect for the work of reporting
September 25, 2020
"They told me their stories, gave them to me for keeping, which I did, always listening, always remembering."

“They told me their stories, gave them to me for keeping, which I did, always listening, always remembering.”

Hiram Walker is a motherless young slave in Virginia, fathered by the lord of a plantation that is clinging to shreds of grace even as the land plays out from…
September 15, 2020
7 Fatal Flaws of Story Pitches

7 Fatal Flaws of Story Pitches

How to identify common mistakes that get in the way of landing that big idea
September 3, 2020
The power of a pronoun

The power of a pronoun

It would be folly to follow the thousands (millions?) of sentences that have been written since Tuesday (Aug. 11, 2020), when presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden announced that U.S.…
August 25, 2020
The enduring power of John Hersey's "Hiroshima": the first "nonfiction novel"

The enduring power of John Hersey’s “Hiroshima”: the first “nonfiction novel”

Seventy-five years ago, on Aug. 6, 1945, a plane called the Enola Gay, manned by a crew from the U.S. Army Air Force, flew over the Japanese city of Hiroshima…
August 6, 2020
If no one reads the news, did it happen?

If no one reads the news, did it happen?

The self-checkout line at my funky neighborhood grocery was wide open, but I waited for the old-fashioned line, with a checker and a bagger. I don’t like to weigh my…
July 22, 2020
"... between broad statistical data and intimate personal disclosure."

“… between broad statistical data and intimate personal disclosure.”

As the daily read of crucial issues — racial injustice, the pandemic, the political divide, the battered environment, the brutal economy — expands and deepens, I keep looking for those…
July 17, 2020