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.

A nut graf by any other name might taste sweeter ~ and be more digestible

A nut graf by any other name might taste sweeter ~ and be more digestible

A defense of the summary nut as it is used in variations by Ken Burns, the Beatles and Shakespeare
January 31, 2019
Finding the brightest stars in a constellation of writing tips

Finding the brightest stars in a constellation of writing tips

Conference panels can be frustrating things. Several subject experts droning on, absorbed with the minutiae of their own work, sometimes failing to make bigger points, often repeating what other panelists…
January 18, 2019
"There's a story he's waiting for, long before he comes across it."

“There’s a story he’s waiting for, long before he comes across it.”

In the original context of “The Overstory,” this sentence applies to a young man — a teenager, actually — who tumbles into the little-known language of coding and programming in…
January 16, 2019
“Everyone likes to reminisce, but no one wants to listen, and everyone feels annoyed when someone else tells a story.”

“Everyone likes to reminisce, but no one wants to listen, and everyone feels annoyed when someone else tells a story.”

There is much to consider in “The Three-Body Problem,” the first in a trilogy by Chinese science fiction novelist Cixin Liu (translated by Ken Liu). Much of it – physics,…
January 1, 2019
"We don't carry that brand, but I think Gimbel's does."

“We don’t carry that brand, but I think Gimbel’s does.”

If this choice for One Great Sentence seems odd, rest assured we’re not going to go all holiday sappy on you. That’s what the Hallmark holiday movie channels are for.…
November 29, 2018
Large writing lessons from a small space

Large writing lessons from a small space

A morning’s hasty scroll through Facebook earlier this week showed the above photo from Traci Angel, an author, teacher and freelancer based in Kansas City and a recent Storyboard contributor.…
November 22, 2018
"...readers want to feel secure in the hands of the author."

“…readers want to feel secure in the hands of the author.”

This simple statement stands as a truism for all storytellers, regardless of platform or genre. Every writer, filmmaker, photographer, illustrator, podcaster, editor and teacher of same should keep some version…
November 21, 2018
Eulogy for Paradise: A breaking news story framed as the profile and history of a town

Eulogy for Paradise: A breaking news story framed as the profile and history of a town

The Facebook post was conversational and almost light-hearted:And on Day Two of Camp Fire coverage, I spilled water all over my notebook and laptop (tips?!). Seems fitting that the only…
November 15, 2018
“And a lean, silent figure slowly fades into the gathering darkness, aware at last that in this world, with great power there must also come – great responsibility!”

“And a lean, silent figure slowly fades into the gathering darkness, aware at last that in this world, with great power there must also come – great responsibility!”

 That’s how Stan Lee introduced Spider-Man to Marvel Comics readers in 1962. The narrator pronounces these words, which so many of us have heard so many times, in the last…
November 15, 2018
"Developing a writer's voice is almost a process of unlearning, one analogous to children's painting."

“Developing a writer’s voice is almost a process of unlearning, one analogous to children’s painting.”

A clear grasp of “voice” in writing has always eluded me. Not that I don’t have one. Everyone does. But I’ve never been able to define mine, and certainly can’t…
November 7, 2018