WKU News

Bowling Green, Ky. – Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Joel Pett will be the next speaker in this year’s Kentucky Live series on Thursday, October 19 at 7:00 p.m. at Barnes & Noble Booksellers.  He won the Pulitzer for editorial cartooning in 2000 and was a finalist for the award in 1989, 1998, and 2011.  A native of Bloomington, Indiana he’s travelled to 30 countries on 5 continents.  He was a freelance cartoonist for five years before joining the Lexington Herald-Leader in 1984.  He joined the USA Today as a contributing cartoonist in 2002.  Since then his cartoons have been syndicated in print and online and appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today and Newsweek.  He received the Robert Kennedy Journalism Award in 1999.  

In recent years he’s drawn the wrath of everyone from Governor Bevin to Coach Calipari. A Board member of Cartoonists Rights Network International, he contributes cartoons to the “Cartooning for Peace” website. On occasion he even does stand-up comedy.

Pett is also a participant in the Friday events for the inaugural Young Adult Southern Book Con to be held on Friday at SKyPAC in Bowling Green. For more information about the book festival, go to yasbookcon.org or contact Literary Outreach Coordinator for WKU Libraries Sara Volpi at sara.volpi@wku.edu.