Books are more than their covers
By Jacqui Banaszynski Back in March, The New York Times published a how-to piece on styling bookshelves. It was written by Tim McKeough and featured Jeremiah Brent, who is on the cast of the Netflix...
View ArticleFrom the solid foundation of articles to the creative reach of stories
By Laine Cibulskis As a young tween, life’s turbulence often led me to pick up my pen and write poetry. I was prolific. I filled journals upon journals and clogged my phone notes with words. I started...
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What makes a good editor? Flexibility, mutual trust and chocolate chips
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first of an occasional series interviewing story editors about how they do their jobs. By Carly Stern Any grateful writer can attest to the power of a strong editor — a...
View ArticleHow to nurture an editor-reporter partnership
By Jacqui Banaszynski The dance of editors and writers. Oh, the stories we all could tell! Mine, during 20 years as a reporter, involve a lot of bratty behavior that would not be tolerated in today’s...
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The murder, a pub and an essay of place
By Laurie Hertzel It’s a standard story for American newspapers: the story-behind-the-story of someone who has died suddenly and tragically. But when Keith Duggan wrote about the life and death of...
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Early influencers in a writing life
By Ben Yagoda One day in the very late 1960s, my father brought home a copy of Esquire magazine. Out popped a card offering an annual subscription for, I believe, $1.99. He filled it out and mailed it...
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Essential Breslin: Artful narrative by a master of journalistic craft
By Lauren Kessler The book arrived in the afternoon mail: “Jimmy Breslin: Essential Writings.” I opened to the first story, figuring I’d take a quick look. It was a longish piece written in 1960 about...
View ArticleRemembering Memorial Day ~ and the sparks of fresh stories
By Jacqui Banaszynski It’s Memorial Day in these dis-United States. The news won’t take a holiday. There are too many active war zones, notably in Ukraine and Gaza; the armed conflicts that persist in...
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A good editor? Word skills, listening skills and people skills
EDITOR’S NOTE: The interview with Mike Wilson of The New York Times is another in our occasional series “What makes a good editor” and will be followed by his annotation of a story by Chicago...
View ArticleWhat makes a good editor?: Mike Wilson annotates a complex story he edited
EDITOR’S NOTE: In this installment of our occasional series “What Makes a Good Editor,” we featured a Q&A with Mike Wilson of The New York Times “Great Reads” and follow it with his annotation...
View ArticleWhen the structure makes the story
By Jacqui Banaszynski Last Thursday was momentous news in these dis-United States, bringing news I doubt I need to recap. I confess that I was held captive to radio and news sites for the six weeks of...
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How a reporter prepped to understand A.I. and the man who helped invent it
By Chip Scanlan Journalists who write profiles don’t go in cold. They pre-report to prepare for crucial interviews. They read widely and research previous stories that have been written about their...
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… that he who does good …
By Jacqui Banaszynski The 2023 novel “North Woods” by Daniel Mason is about apples, or about a patch of land where a disaffected traveler grew apples, or about the house he built that then crumbled, or...
View ArticleWhat fractals — and obituaries — can teach us about writing
By Jacqui Banaszynski I awoke on a recent morning thinking about death. Not morbidly about my own — though at this age, the clock ticks more loudly, so that’s not a far reach. These thoughts were about...
View ArticleEffective editing: Mutual trust and knowing the heart of a story
EDITOR’S NOTE: For other posts in the occasional series about effective editing, read our interviews with Mike Wilson of The New York Times and Scott Stossel of The Atlantic. The below interview with...
View ArticleEffective editing: Lynda Robinson annotates a sensitive story on faith and...
EDITOR’S NOTE: In this installment of our occasional series on effective editing, we featured a Q&A with Lynda Robinson, an enterprise and narrative editor at the Washington Post, and follow it...
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The backstory of a book of backstories about stories
By Kim Cross There are many worthy books about the narrative craft of great storytelling. But the story behind a story — the hurdles, dilemmas, ethical quandaries and logic puzzles invisible in a...
View ArticleWhen the story passion burns bright
By Jacqui Banaszynski My house crackled with energy for a couple of days last week as I hosted a young friend who is in the prime-time of a reporting/writing career — even if she can’t see it herself...
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All those books? The painful joy of letting go
By Laurie Hertzel In a few days I am going to start hauling books from the front hallway out into the front yard for a giant give-away. Neighbors will come, and friends, and folks I don’t know, and I...
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How a profile of a Kabul hotel became a profile of today’s Afghanistan
By Ania Hull Swiss journalist Andreas Babst roams South Asia and the Middle east as a correspondent for the German-language Swiss daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ). He lives in India, and when time...
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