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.

What a "true war story" is really about

What a “true war story” is really about

We love hearing from Storyboard readers. A message from one, in response to last week’s pieces, inspired this U.S. Memorial Day post — something of a thoughtful holiday bonus. Among…
May 27, 2019
"A true war story is never moral."

“A true war story is never moral.”

—Tim O'Brien, from his novel "The Things They Carried"
May 23, 2019
"He was followed by 30 seconds of silence, during which every sigh toured the walls of the church."

“He was followed by 30 seconds of silence, during which every sigh toured the walls of the church.”

Now and again, in the wonderful world of reading, you stumble across a sentence that not only evokes a response or feeling because of what it says, but because of how…
May 3, 2019
Going public with the private pain of suicide

Going public with the private pain of suicide

Modern society works hard to find ways to talk about subjects that have long been taboo, and that left sufferers isolated and shrouded in shame. Things like mental illness, abortion,…
April 24, 2019
Two sentences from books honored by 2019 Pulitzer Prizes and the lessons in journalism they inspired

Two sentences from books honored by 2019 Pulitzer Prizes and the lessons in journalism they inspired

Awards from elite, independent institutions always offer a reminder of the powerful work being done by storytellers of all stripes. None moreso in journalism than the Pulitzer Prizes.This year’s Pulitzer…
April 18, 2019
"Losing Earth:" Nathaniel Rich's epic on the failure to confront climate change

“Losing Earth:” Nathaniel Rich’s epic on the failure to confront climate change

Today marks the release of “Losing Earth: A Recent History,” Nathaniel Rich. The narrative tracks the story of a handful of scientists and politicians from 1979 to 1989 as they…
April 9, 2019
Hitting home runs with story pitches

Hitting home runs with story pitches

Pitching rises again and again as one of the main challenges facing writers who want to make the leap from idea to publication. Whether you’re a reporter hustling support for…
April 5, 2019
Learning to look up, down, sideways, backwards and beyond while storytelling

Learning to look up, down, sideways, backwards and beyond while storytelling

Storytellers in any medium can learn from those in others. Writers must know how to paint mental images through the hieroglyphics of text, apply (and break) rules of grammar to…
March 13, 2019
Forget the chocolates. Tell a story instead

Forget the chocolates. Tell a story instead

I‘m not much on Valentine’s Day. I liked the grade school tradition of exchanging Valentine’s Day cards with classmates. (Is that just a U.S. thing?) Each of us was supposed…
February 14, 2019
A nutcracker suite: How top journalists interpret the dance of the nut graf

A nutcracker suite: How top journalists interpret the dance of the nut graf

Editor’s note: We’re looking at the never-ending debate over what is called, in journalese, the “nut graf” — that so-what paragraph or section that pulls out of the news or…
February 1, 2019