Ann Telnaes: The Washington Post Cartoonist Who Was Censored by Her Editor

Ann Telnaes is an award-winning editorial cartoonist, working in various mediums — animation, visual essays, live sketches and traditional print. She has worked as an editorial cartoonist for the Washington Post since 2008, but decided to leave the Post after her cartoon criticizing the billionaire tech and media chief executives financially supporting President-elect Trump, was killed.
Telnaes won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for her print cartoons and the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben for “Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year” for 2016. She was awarded the international EWK Award, named after the legendary Swedish cartoonist Ewert Karlsson in 2021 and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for her illustrated reporting and cartooning in 2022. She was awarded the 2023 Herblock Prize for editorial cartooning.
Her print work was shown in a solo exhibition at the Great Hall in the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress in 2004 and she has also published several books, such as “Humor’s Edge”, a collection of Vice President Cheney cartoons, “Dick”, and “Trump’s ABC”. Telnaes’ work has also been exhibited in Paris, Jerusalem, and Lisbon.
Telnaes attended California Institute of the Arts and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, specializing in character animation. Before beginning her career as an editorial cartoonist, Telnaes worked for several years as a designer for Walt Disney Imagineering. She has also animated and designed for various studios in Los Angeles, New York, London, and Taiwan.
Telnaes is a past president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC) and is a member of the National Cartoonists Society (NCS).