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.
By Jacqui Banaszynski Work as a journalist long enough, or at least start as a journalist long enough ago, and “-30-” was a standard part of your newsroom language. It was typed at the bottom of every story I … Read more
By Jacqui Banaszynski Friends and former colleagues from the Upper Midwest have had grand fun in the last few weeks watching a Minnesota vibe infect national politics. Mountain Editor sends frequent links to stories about Democratic vice presidential candidate … Read more
By Jacqui Banaszynski My radio options are minimal on long stretches of the drive from my city house to the mountain cabin. When I lose a signal altogether, I lean into the silence — no interest in a Sirius … Read more
By Jacqui Banaszynski My garage-cleaning project continues to be a tomorrow thing. To ease my guilt a bit, I am tapping a sure-fire procrastinator’s trick: Do some other thing that sort of needs to be done while you’re avoiding … Read more
By Jacqui Banaszynski I didn’t know the woman honored in an essay in the Phoenix Spirit, a Minnesota-based publication focused on emotional and spiritual health. Even after reading it, I only knew her first name, Eileen, … Read more
By Jacqui Banaszynski A recent post I wrote prompted a response that merits its own response. The first is a thank-you to the writer. Whether feedback is a smooch or a spanking, I’ve been in the biz long enough to welcome … Read more
I often ask the journalists I work with who they write for. A more productive way of framing that question is to ask who they envision as the audience for their essay or magazine story or book. Who do … Read more
By Jacqui Banaszynski That political hangover I mentioned several days ago, as I braced for the first (and maybe last) presidential debate of this fraught election season, has turned into a full-blown intellectual headache. It was especially interesting to … Read more
By Jacqui Banaszynski This past weekend, I attended a “golden era” reunion of newsroom staffers from the Register-Guard in Eugene, Oregon. Fourteen hours of driving, much of it in gridlock freeway traffic, for four hours of catch-up with people … Read more
By Jacqui Banaszynski The email arrived almost two weeks ago. I’m embarrassed to say I haven’t yet found a good response. It was sent by a talented young freelancer I met in one of my writing workshops. We keep … Read more