Roz Chast Gets National Humanities Medal

From dailycartoonist.com:

President Joseph R. Biden presented the 2022 and 2023 National Humanities Medals, in conjunction with the National Medals of Arts, on Monday, October 21, 2024, in a private ceremony at the White House. The 19 distinguished medal recipients include writers, historians, educators, and filmmakers.

And a cartoonist!

Cartoonist and author Roz Chast was among those honored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, receiving a 2023 National Humanities Medal. The National Humanities Medal, inaugurated in 1997, honors individuals or groups whose work has deepened the nation’s understanding of the humanities and broadened our citizens’ engagement with history, literature, languages, philosophy, and other humanities subjects.

Yesterday I received a medal from the National Endowment for the Humanities. President Biden himself placed the medal around my neck. He and Dr. Jill Biden congratulated me. It was more emotional than I was expecting. Also I met Spike Lee, fellow Brooklynite and many others. Biden gave a speech about the importance of the arts in America, about how artists are the truth-tellers and the bridge-builders. It was very moving. Also I didn’t accidentally barf or knock anyone over or laugh for no reason or have some kind of weird outburst, so yay, me. —Roz Chast via Instagram

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Roz Chast is an American cartoonist and a staff cartoonist for The New Yorker. Since 1978, she has published more than 800 cartoons in The New Yorker in addition to cartoons in Scientific American and the Harvard Business Review. Her book, Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?, is a graphic memoir combining cartoons, text and photographs to tell the story of an only child helping her elderly parents navigate the end of their lives. The book won a National Book Critics Circle Award and was shortlisted for a National Book Award. Chast will appear at the 2025 Festival.