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.

Narrative in a weekend conference, and the thank-you note that followed

Narrative in a weekend conference, and the thank-you note that followed

Power of Storytelling 2018, Bucharest, RomaniaBelow is a post offered on Facebook earlier this month as a thank you to speakers and attendees at the 8th Edition of the Power…
October 31, 2018
"How could you have a new country without excellent dreamers?"

“How could you have a new country without excellent dreamers?”

The last time I posted One Great Sentence, it was with thoughts about how context informs and layers the meaning of a single line. Only when I opened that post…
October 25, 2018
Don't be a turkey: Earn your flight wings

Don’t be a turkey: Earn your flight wings

Editor’s note: At Storyboard, we’re always looking for moments of inspiration, epiphany and, yes, struggle that we can all relate to or learn from. We hope to make such discoveries…
October 17, 2018
"The girl, Fernanda Jacqueline Davila, was 2 years old: brief life, long journey." 

“The girl, Fernanda Jacqueline Davila, was 2 years old: brief life, long journey.” 

 There is much to consider in that straightforward sentence. A small child, only 2. A girl-child, if that matters, but that conjurs the universal image of a child clutching a…
October 11, 2018
"From the dancing came the dancing."

“From the dancing came the dancing.”

 Sentences can seem simple. Even the most tangled and complex are just a few words arranged between punctuation and white space. Ideally they make sense standing alone.But sentences never really…
October 4, 2018
"Just be the kite."

“Just be the kite.”

An award-winning author writes a break-out novel, and then another, and then…It has been 10 years since Minnesota novelist Leif Enger‘s last book, “So Brave, Young and Handsome,” was published.…
September 25, 2018
"No matter how long we study them, the images are unfathomable. No matter how quickly we look away, they are unforgettable."

“No matter how long we study them, the images are unfathomable. No matter how quickly we look away, they are unforgettable.”

Why it’s good: There are endless memories and memorials marking yesterday, the 17th anniversary of 9/11. I find it impossible to post about something else, but impossible to choose the…
September 12, 2018
"Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it."

“Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”

—Poet Mary Oliver, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award
September 5, 2018
Rebecca Solnit's long and winding road through the tangled tale of politics

Rebecca Solnit’s long and winding road through the tangled tale of politics

The opening paragraph of Rebecca Solnit’s new LitHub essay, “Why the President Must Be Impeached,” is a single sentence, 88 words long. It is one of the shortest paragraphs in…
September 4, 2018
"Words. Words upon the wind. What will endure, perhaps is what I have written. If so, it is enough."

“Words. Words upon the wind. What will endure, perhaps is what I have written. If so, it is enough.”

Geraldine Brooks laid that line down in “Secret Chord,” her deeply researched and richly reimagined novel about the life of biblical King David, the psalm-writing, harp-playing, woman-lusting warrior. But they…
August 22, 2018