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A collaboration through nine months, 14,000 words, 36 chapters and a “leap of...
By Carly Stern Every reporter has one of those story ideas simmering on the back burner that they simply can’t let drop. For Raquel Rutledge, it started with a house fire. The fire, which damaged a...
View ArticleStaying cool in the face of heated criticism
By Jacqui Banaszynski Everybody talks about the weather — more than ever these days. But not everybody gets death threats for their comments. Yet that’s what happened to Chris Gloninger, a chief...
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How a reporter documented the failure of “failure-to-protect” laws
By Chip Scanlan Samantha Michaels was reading The New York Times one day in 2019 when she read a story about a case where the punishment seemed vastly disproportionate to the crime. The situation...
View ArticleWhat a prison writing program taught a professional writer from the inside out
By Lauren Kessler We’re sitting on folding chairs around a scarred table, the linoleum veneer curling at the edges, in an airless, windowless room. It’s me and nine men, ranging in age from 38 to 81,...
View ArticleMaking prison stories relevant and relatable
By Jacqui Banaszynski Prison stories are a special challenge for journalists. The gold standards of journalism are relevance and relatability. But it can be hard for many readers and listeners, if not...
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“Are you writing this down?”
By Polly Basore Wenzl Picture a sandy-haired Dennis the Menace, 11 years old. He wandered into News Connect, the Wichita Journalism Collaborative’s pop-up newsroom, in the downtown library on a recent...
View ArticleThe (should-be-easy) interview a veteran interviewer couldn’t bring himself...
By Michael Ollove I couldn’t bring myself to speak to Stephen King. That Stephen King. The Titan of Terror. The Behemoth of the Bestseller List. Maine’s Master of the Macabre. I had him in my sights,...
View ArticleBack-seat story magic
By Jacqui Banaszynski Reporter friends after swap tales about the stories and tips they picked up from cabbies when they travel on assignments. That’s seldom been successful for me. First, I’m not big...
View ArticleHelping each other navigate obscure records and obdurate sources
By Jacqui Banaszynski At the many writing workshops I lead, the primary struggles reporters raise involve, duh, writing. But when six health-reporting fellows gathered recently, the challenges they...
View ArticleA profile of rival athletic greats becomes an exploration of a great friendship
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one of two posts analyzing the stand-out profile of tennis greats Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova by Washington Post sports columnist Sally Jenkins. A Q&A with Jenkins...
View ArticleJ-school beyond the textbook
By Jacqui Banaszynski According to my pre-Wordle morning scans of social media in recent days, it’s back-to-school time. That seems awfully early to me (What happened to waiting until after Labor...
View ArticleHonor due reporter, editor and Nieman curator Robert H. Giles, 1933-2023
By Jacqui Banaszynski My heart goes out, along with favorite story moments, to all who knew, worked with and loved Bob Giles. It also goes out to those of you who were not so blessed. If you are part...
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Sally Jenkins on her intimate interview with Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one of two posts on the intimate interview with tennis stars Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert by Sally Jenkins of The Washington Post. You can also read our analysis of what...
View ArticleRead not just for the what of the story, but for the how of the writing
By Jacqui Banaszynski Imagine the directive in the image above is not an end game, but a prompt. What if you added something more descriptive? Read more broadly. Read more thoughtfully. Read more...
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A meditation on violence, grief and healing in Uvalde, Texas
By Trevor Pyle When a former student killed 19 students and two teachers in a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school last year, the ache spread worldwide. One who felt the pain keenly was Kim Garza, a...
View ArticleHow a 9/11 narrative guided a gun violence narrative 22 years later
By Talia Richman Before our first meeting about how to tackle a tick-tock of the mass shooting at an outlet mall in Allen, Texas, this spring, Kelley Benham French sent over an annotated copy of David...
View ArticleA writer’s education, from pen pals to bylines
By Jacqui Banaszynski One of the back-to-school things I looked forward to in grade school was the Weekly Reader, a tab-sized newspaper that was handed out in class. I suppose it carried some features...
View ArticleStory seeds from the garden
By Jacqui Banaszynski Enjoy an end-of-summer delight, courtesy of Ashley Lodato, a columnist for the Methow Valley News in the far north Cascades of Washington state. Lodato’s writing has caught our...
View ArticleSeed money for news, narrative and democracy
By Jacqui Banaszynski A hopeful-news detour from a study of the art and craft of story work, to the shaky business that supports that work. In this case, To summarize it, I borrow from our sister...
View ArticleA failed lunar landing and a successful marriage
By Jacqui Banaszynski In the mood for an enduring romance? Mine came this week through the obituary of Marilyn Lovell, wife of Apollo astronaut Jim Lovell. The couple were portrayed by Kathleen Quinlan...
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