Ohioana Citation for Art and Journalism: 2008
Ted Rall
Grew up in Kettering OH
Journalist, artist, writer
Ted Rall decribes himself as “America’s BS detector” as well as a “neo-traditionalist who uses a unique drawing style to
revive the approach of Thomas Nast, who viewed editorial cartoons as a vehicle for change.”
A Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1996, Rall is a two-time winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award,
which recognizes distinguished work designed to help the disadvantaged. Rall, who has achieved notoriety for his
bold and provocative political cartoons and his edgy satire, has never hesitated when it comes to tackling some of the
prickliest political and social issues, and his efforts to bring to light social issues through his art won him the James Aronson Award for
Social Justice Graphics in 2002.
Rall was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1963 and raised in Kettering Ohio.
His first cartoons were published in the Kettering-Oakwood (OH) Times. He majored in physics at Columbus University’s
School of Engineering from 1981 until 1984, where he dew cartoons for three college newspapers.
He has hosted a radio talks show, was one of the New York Times’ most reprinted cartoonists in 1997, 1999 and 2001,
and his cartoons appear in more than 140 publications
Ted Rall’s most recent book is Silk Road to Ruin: Is Central Asia the New Middle East? an in-depth prose and graphic-novel
analysis of America’s next big foreign policy challenge.
Ted Rall Website
