Telnaes, Ann C. 1960-

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TELNAES, Ann C. 1960-

PERSONAL: Born 1960, in Stockholm, Sweden; naturalized American citizen, c. 1973; married David Lloyd. Education: California Institute of the Arts, B.F.A.

ADDRESSES: Home—Washington, DC. Offıce—c/o Tribune Media Services, 435 North Michigan Ave., Suite 1500, Chicago, IL 60611. E-mail—atelnaes@aol. com.

CAREER: Editorial cartoonist. Creator of "Mo,rdquo; comic strip for Oxygen Media Web site; contributor to "Six Chix" syndicated cartoon package, King Features Syndicate. Walt Disney Imagineering, show designer, 1987-93; former animator and layout designer for Warner Bros. and other studios in London, Los Angeles, Taiwan, and New York. Exhibitions: Editorial cartoons exhibited at Newseum, Arlington, VA, 2001-02; Library of Congress, Washington, DC, 2004; and in Paris, France.

MEMBER: Cartoonists Rights Network (member of board of directors), Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (vice president, 2000—).

AWARDS, HONORS: Environmental Media Award for Best Editorial Cartoonist, Environmental Media Association, 1996; Global Media Award for Best Cartoonist, Population Institute, 1996; National Headliner Award for Editorial Cartoons, Press Club of Atlantic City, NJ, 1997; Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning, 2001; Maggie Award for Editorial Cartoons, Planned Parenthood, 2002; Berryman Award, National Press Foundation, 2003.

WRITINGS:

Humor's Edge (collection of cartoons), Pomegranate Communications (Petaluma, CA), 2004.

Contributor of cartoons to periodicals, including Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Newsday, New York Times, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Chicago Tribune, Le Monde, and Austin American-Statesman. Cartoons also featured in books, including God's Most Precious Jewels Are Crystallized Tears by Barbara Johnson, W Publishing Group, 2001, and Attack of the Political Cartoonists by J. P. Trostle, Dork Storm Press, 2004.

SIDELIGHTS: In 2001 Ann Telnaes became the second woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning—following 1992 winner Signe Wilkinson—and the first winner not affiliated with a newspaper to take home the prize since Bill Mauldin in 1945. Telnaes's work has been distributed to major newspapers by various syndicates, including the North America Syndicate and Tribune Media Services.

Beginning her career in animation, Telnaes decided to become an editorial cartoonist om response to the 1991 Congressional hearings on Clarence Thomas's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court Those hearings saw a former colleague of Thomas's, Anita Hill, accuse him of sexual harassment. The proceedings "struck an emotional chord with millions of women, including Telnaes," reported Chris Lamb in Editor & Publisher. Telnaes, who has said she has also experienced sexual harassment, told Lamb she became "angry" during the hearings and drew on that anger to create editorial illustrations and cartoons, eventually leaving her job as a Walt Disney animator to pursue cartooning full-time.

Telnaes did not initially realize that women were rare in the profession, accounting for less than five percent of all editorial cartoonists. One reason for their scarcity, she told Editor & Publisher contributor Dave Astor, might be that society discourages women from being "forceful," which is what the job demands. She emphasizes that she is "an editorial cartoonist rather than a female editorial cartoonist," Astor related, but acknowledges that being a woman does inform her viewpoint on such issues as sexual harassment and reproductive rights.

As her career has progressed, Telnaes has continued to deal with these topics as well as many other national and international issues. She "leans liberal but is 'willing to blast either side for stupidity,'" Astor remarked. Reviewing an exhibit of the cartoonist's work at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., Washington Post writer Jessica Dawson listed "things Telnaes disdains: complacency, overconsumption, jingoism, George W. Bush, the pope." However, her cartoons also characterized Bush's 2000 opponent, Al Gore, as "artificial" and portrayed the national television networks as obedient sheep following the George W. Bush administration to war in Iraq. In a cartoon reacting to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Telnaes eschewed typical patriotic sentiments and instead showed an Uncle Sam shaken up by "reality." This "clean, hard" cartoon showed that Telnaes "sticks to her ideological guns even in times of crisis," Dawson observed. She further noted that Telnaes's drawings "are a simple, jazzy lot" and that the cartoonist "is at her sharpest when skewering those she hates."

Telnaes's Library of Congress exhibit was titled "Humor's Edge," and a book of her cartoons was published under the same title. A Publishers Weekly critic thought the book demonstrates that the artist's Pulitzer Prize was "justified," as her cartoons have "artistic clarity" and she expresses her opinions "with grace and wit." A reviewer for Wisconsin Bookwatch added that the cartoons are "sharply worded," "cleanly drawn," and "thought-provoking."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Editor & Publisher, October 8, 1994, Chris Lamb, "A

'Capital' Decision for Ann C. Telnaes," p. 44; May 18, 1996, Dave Astor, "Cartoonists without a Home Newspaper," p. 40; January 10, 2000, Dave Astor, "King Features Six Women in One Cartoon Package," p. 34; June 26, 2000, Dave Astor, "Editorial Cartoonist Opts to Change Her Syndicate," p. 50; December 18, 2000, "Stantis Voted Prez-elect of Editorial Cartoonists," p. 51; April 23, 2001, Joe Strupp, "Winning Smiles," p. 18; April 23, 2001, Dave Astor, "Editorial Cartooning: Ann Telnaes," p. 21; December 17, 2001, Dave Astor, "Newseum Show for Winner of 2001 Cartoon Pulitzer," p. 19; March 25, 2002, Dave Astor, "Et Cetera . . . ," p. 28.

National NOW Times, summer, 2001, Lisa Bennett-Haigney, "NOW Congratulates Ann Telnaes on Pulitzer Prize," p. 6.

Publishers Weekly, July 19, 2004, review of Humor'sEdge, p. 146.

Washington Post, August 26, 2004, Jessica Dawson, "Ann Telnaes, Quick on the Draw," p. C5.

Wisconsin Bookwatch, August, 2004, review of Humor's Edge.