Vermont will appoint Ed Koren as their cartoon laureate on Feb 27. Ed is a long-time New Yorker cartoonist. He will succeed James Kochalka who was appointed in 2011.
Vermont is the only state to regularly appoint a cartoonist laureate; Alaska appointed a cartoonist laureate in 2008 but has not kept the position filled.
“A cartoonist laureate is the kind of thinking outside the box that Vermont supports,” Gov. Peter Shumlin said in a statement. “Cartooning promotes literacy and literature, two things we can’t have enough of.”
While in Vermont last week, I noticed this drawing from Koren hanging on the wall of a small Montpelier pub. I wondered what the connection was between the cartoonist and the pub. Looking at a map from where he is reportedly living and Montpelier, I was but a 20-30 minute drive away. Had I known that, I would have invited him to dinner at the pub.
