Show Me the Best: Editor’s Choice
Andrea Kaneko’s “Train Travelers,” July/August 2025 story epitomizes a maxim of good writing: “Show, don’t tell.” Her writing reflects the effort she made to meet people, talk to them, and find out who they are. She gave readers the powerful message that everyone has a story to tell. And not only that, but everyone tells a story when you watch them closely. I think her story represents what Missouri Life is about and makes the readers feel like they, too, experienced this journey by train.
The fact that I would really like to know what makes kanji more difficult to read than the other two forms of Japanese characters shows how much I was drawn into the story. So great job, Andrea!
RUNNERS-UP
That said, it was such a close and tough call, due to two runner-up stories: “The Last to Rise” by Dorris Keeven Franke and Sydney Jones, a story about Missouri’s last fugitive slave, Archer Alexander, and “ ‘Reader, Are You an Abolitionist?’ ” by Sydney Jones, a story about the fugitive slave William Wells Brown, who became the first Black author published in America. Both are powerful and well-told stories about enslaved individuals in Missouri and their paths to freedom.
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HONORABLE MENTIONS:
“Hard Work in the Heartland” by Diana West
“King of the River Pirates” by Ron Soodalter
“The Great Tri-State Tornado of 1925” by Steve Wiegenstein
“5 Shows in 5 Nights in Branson” by Sydney Jones
“Iron Mountain Baby” by Pam Clifton
Search MissouriLife.com to read the runners-up and honorable mention stories.
This article was orginally published in the January 2026 issue of Missouri Life.
