Hey everyone!

Today I am with Liza Donnelly who is a cartoonist and writer for

The New Yorker Magazine and is a resident cartoonist for CBS News. Her work has also
appeared in The New York Times, Harvard Business Review and Forbes. Donnelly is the
author of 16 books, some examples are Funny Ladies: The New Yorker’s Greatest
Women Cartoonists and Their Cartoons and Women On Men. She received numerous
American and international awards for her work. Donnelly frequently draws political
cartoons about feminism and women’s rights.

Linda, you have mentioned that you started drawing at 6 years old when your
mom gave you a book of cartoons by James Thurber. What is the importance of James
Thurber in your career and did he help you to discover your passions?
Linda: I start my career with him actually. I first drew when I got his book. My mom gave
a pencil and a stack of paper. His drawings are simple and childish enough for me to trace. I
realized this made my mom smile and then I found my passion.

So after you discover your talent about cartooning, you chose to draw about
females and their rights. What is the reason behind it, what’s your aim?
Linda: When I started my career, female cartoonist are not present. And I think women
face lots of hardships during their life, they face inequalities a lot. Also, there is a misconception
about the terms feminism and feminazi. That’s why I elaborate on that too. However, after some
time, I noticed that I wanted to do more. I wanted to bring a new perspective and do more
political cartoons and dealing with international human rights. I prefer using humour in my
cartoons to show what people don’t notice in their life. I look for different ways to express humor
which led me write a book called “Funny ladies”. I combine humor and political cartoons to shine
light on subjects that maybe people aren’t thinking about. Humor can open a door a little bit that
encourages people to talk more about feminism and their experiences.

And what is the process of creating a cartoon that speaks out about a subject in the
realm of feminist issues?
Linda: To begin creating a cartoon, I start with a blank piece of paper and the
news—either an actually hard copy of the New York Times, or more often the internet. I am
always making myself aware of what is going on in the news and our culture. I gather ideas,
trends, buzz words on the paper and start doodling. I try to find topics that will lend themselves
to humor and at best get at a truth. The New Yorker publishes more of the non-feminist cartoons
I do; my cartoons that go with my column on Forbes are almost always about women and
women’s rights.

Earlier, you mentioned your book “Funny Ladies: The New Yorker's Greatest
Women Cartoonists and Their Cartoons ”, but where did the idea for the book come from?
Linda: I got invited by Signe Wilkinson to be on a panel at the American Association of
Editorial Cartoonists convention. They invited me to be on a panel about women cartoonists for
their annual convention, so I agreed and in preparing for that I asked people. I thought more
about why there aren’t more women. It was a visual knock on the head. From then I started
thinking more about this. I also read a book about the same time by a woman named Judith Lee
called “Defining New Yorker Humor”. She has one chapter about the women cartoonists in the
magazine. I went to The New Yorker archives at the public library. I went to the library at The
New Yorker and looked through those catalogs. I don’t think they do it anymore but they used to
clip out all the cartoons in the magazines and each artist would have their own scrapbook. I
started researching that and that’s how the book came to be.

Wow! It’s lovely to meet you Liza. Thanks for sharing your experience with us, you
really enlighten us about some issues.
Linda: Thanks for inviting me. Have a nice day.