# Ann Telnaes

Ann Carolyn Telnaes (born November 15, 1960) is a prize-winning American editorial cartoonist. She creates editorial cartoons in various media—animation, visual essays, live sketches, and traditional print. Telnaes worked for The Washington Post from 2008 until her resignation on January 3, 2025. She also contributed to The Nib. Telnaes was honored with a solo exhibition at the Great Hall in the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress in 2004. Telnaes was president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists during 2016–2017. In 2020, her work was included in the exhibit Women in Comics: Looking Forward, Looking Back at the Society of Illustrators in New York City. She is a member of the advisory board of the Freedom Cartoonists Foundation that is based in Geneva and a former member of the board of directors of Cartoonists Rights Network International.

## Biography

Ann Telnaes was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1960. She was graduated from Reno High School in Reno, Nevada in 1979. She is a naturalized citizen of the United States as well as a natal citizen of Sweden.
Telnaes earned her B.F.A. at the California Institute of the Arts in 1985, specializing in character animation. In 2020, she taught the course "Commentary Through Cartoons" as a visiting faculty member at CalArts.
Before becoming an editorial cartoonist, she worked in the animation field and also as a show designer for Walt Disney Imagineering. She contributed to such films as The Brave Little Toaster and The Chipmunk Adventure.
In 2003, while the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court was deciding the fate of same-sex marriage, Telnaes created an editorial cartoon criticizing the historical imbalance of gender roles in the United States by which "the traditional view of marriage between a man and a woman has resulted in second class citizenship for many people in America for a long time".
Telnaes began working for The Washington Post in 2008. In 2015, a Telnaes cartoon was removed by the Washington Post from the newspaper's website. The cartoon had depicted Ted Cruz as an organ grinder with two monkeys. Telnaes defended her cartoon by tweeting, "Ted Cruz has put his children in a political ad—don't start screaming when editorial cartoonists draw them as well."
In early January 2025, Telnaes resigned from The Washington Post after her cartoon lampooning powerful media and technology billionaires and a corporation mascot performing obeisance before president-elect Donald Trump was rejected by opinions editor David Shipley. Included in the sketch were OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Post owner Jeff Bezos, Meta/Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg offering bags of money, Los Angeles Times publisher Patrick Soon-Shiong, and a prostrate Disney mascot Mickey Mouse (representing Disney subsidiary ABC News). Mr. Shipley stated that his editorial decision was based on the piece's redundancy with other content that had recently been published by or been approved for publication in the Post. His refusal to publish the cartoon was decried by the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists as "craven censorship" and "political cowardice". Telnaes responded to the situation with a post to her online newsletter.

## Personal life

Telnaes lives with her husband, David Lloyd, in Washington, D.C.

## Awards

Telnaes is the second female cartoonist and one of the few freelancers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning. She was the first woman to receive both the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning and the Reuben Award.
* 1996
** Best Cartoonist, The Population Institute XVII Global Media Awards
** Best Editorial Cartoonist, Sixth Annual Environmental Media Awards
** Reuben Award (National Cartoonists Society), finalist
* 1997 — National Headliner Award for Editorial Cartoons
* 2001 — Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning
* 2002 — Maggie Award for Editorial Cartoons, now known as The Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) Media Excellence Awards
* 2003 — Clifford K. and James T. Berryman Award (National Press Foundation)
* 2011 — Herblock Prize, finalist
* 2016 — Reuben Award, winner
* 2023 — Herblock Prize, winner