News Release

Cynthia Tucker and Garry Trudeau 2004 Pulitzer Prize Finalists

KANSAS CITY, Mo.  (04/05/2004)  Cynthia Tucker and Garry Trudeau, both syndicated by Universal Press, were 2004 Pulitzer Prize finalists. Tucker, editorial page editor at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, was up for her national- and international-issues column, “As I See It.” Trudeau was nominated for “Doonesbury.”

When Trudeau won the Pulitzer Prize in 1975 for his strip’s irreverent but incisive commentary on Watergate, he was the first comic strip artist to win in the Editorial Cartooning category. Lee Salem, editor at Universal Press, said “it’s a tribute to the work Garry has done for nearly 34 years that the Committee has recognized his exceptional contribution to the 2003 political and social discussions by naming him a finalist.” Doonesbury is syndicated in 1,400 newspapers.

The strips that Trudeau submitted covered topics such as Secretary Rumsfeld asking and answering his own questions, American service people sending instant messages to the family from overseas, the portrayal of Arnold Schwarzenegger as “Der Gropenfuhrer” (a big, groping hand), masturbation as a means to prevent prostate cancer, flash mobs for Howard Dean and America's love affair with the anti-French movement.

Tucker, whose column is syndicated in more than 75 U.S. newspapers, was named editorial page editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in November 2001, after having served in that position at The Atlanta Constitution since January 1992. Tucker’s work submitted to the Pulitzer committee included articles on racism, Colin Powell’s record and other under-acknowledged economic, humanitarian and political domestic and international problems.

For samples of Tucker’s columns and Trudeau’s strips, go to: www.amuniversal.com/ups. For more details on the Pulitzer Prize, go to: www.pulitzer.org.

Universal Press Syndicate, in Kansas City, Mo., is the world’s largest independent syndicate. Company founders James Andrews and John McMeel discovered Trudeau when he was a cartoonist for the Yale College newspaper and broke ground by syndicating this first-of-its-kind political cartoon strip. Other Pulitzer Prize creators at Universal Press include editorial cartoonists Pat Oliphant, Joel Pett, Ben Sargent, Jack Higgins, Tony Auth and Tom Toles, cartoonist Jules Feiffer and writers Anna Quindlen, David Shribman, Roger Ebert and Mary McGrory(now retired).

For more information, contact Lillian Kuras at Universal Press Syndicate, LKuras@AMUniversal.com, 816/360-6933.

Creator(s): Cynthia Tucker

Contact(s): Lillian Kuras, 816/360-6933

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