Awards Editorial cartooning Pulitzer Prize

Ann Telnaes Wins 2025 Pulitzer

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D. D. Degg Published: May 5, 2025 Updated: May 5, 2025 1 minute 4 comments

For delivering piercing commentary on powerful people and institutions with deftness, creativity – and a fearlessness that led to her departure from the news organization after 17 years.

Ann Telnaes of The Washington Post awarded the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in Illustrated Reporting and Commentary (link includes Ann’s submission portfolio).

The Washington Post, who printed her 2024 cartoons, proudly claims credit for Ann Telnaes 2025 Pulitzer. Or here.

Ann Telnaes, until recently a political cartoonist for The Post’s Opinions page, was awarded the prize for illustrated reporting and commentary. It was her second win in the category, which was labeled “editorial cartooning” when she was first honored in 2001 while working for Tribune Media Services.

While Telnaes was technically honored for her work in the 2024 calendar year, the prize committee citation also alluded to her unpublished January cartoon, hailing her for “delivering piercing commentary on powerful people and institutions with deftness, creativity — and a fearlessness that led to her departure from the news organization after 17 years.”

Back to the Pulitzer page:

Nominated as finalists in Illustrated Reporting and Commentary in 2025:

Iran Martinez, Steve Breen, Jamie Self and Giovanni Moujaes of inewsource.org, San Diego

For ‘Fentanyl: A Decade of Death,’ [link added] which deftly weaves hard data and human stories with effective metaphors to create a powerful visual narrative for a national audience and the local San Diego readership.

Ernesto Barbieri and Jess Ruliffson, contributors, The Boston Globe

For ‘True Stories From an ICU,’ [or here, links added] a beautiful, funny and frequently haunting depiction of the fragility of human life, with each frame perfectly paced over a seamless scroll.