Ten days after The Chattanooga Times Free Press celebrated their cartoonist Clay Bennett winning the National Headliner Award they are again proudly lauding Clay’s grabbing a finalist spot in this year’s Pulitzer Prize competition in the Illustrated Reporting and Commentary competition.
This is the eighth time Bennett has been a finalist in the prestigious Pulitzer competition. He won a Pulitzer in 2002 for his editorial cartoons.
The judges wrote Bennett’s entry of 15 cartoons is “a portfolio of deceptively gentle, mostly wordless cartoons full of juxtapositions that ably communicate complex, sophisticated messages.”
The Times Free Press also has a gallery of Clay’s submitted portfolio to The Pulitzer Prize judges.
Aside –
Since The Pulitzer Board has killed the Editorial Cartooning category and replaced it with the Illustrated Reporting and Commentary division they have made sure that at least one real newspaper editorial cartoonist has been a finalist. This year Clay Bennett is the only editorial cartoonist nominated in that class. So congratulations to Clay for being the best editorial cartoonist as chosen by the Pulitzer judges.