Jen Sorensen

Jen Sorensen (born September 28, 1974, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania) is an American cartoonist and illustrator who authors a weekly comic strip that often focuses on current events from a liberal perspective. Her work appears on the websites Daily Kos, NPR, Medium, Politico, and AlterNet; in Ms. Magazine, The Progressive, and The Nation; and in over 20 alternative newsweeklies throughout America. In 2014 she became the first woman to win the Herblock Prize.

Raised in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Sorensen enrolled in the University of Virginia, where she drew a daily comic strip, Li'l Gus, for its student newspaper, University Journal, from 1994 to 1995, as well as contributing to the satirical magazine The Yellow Journal.

Sorensen soon became published in various comic anthologies, including Action Girl and the Big Book of the 70's. She published her own book, Slowpoke Comix #1, in 1998. In 1999, one year after the book was published, Slowpoke became a weekly comic strip. As of 2012 the strip goes simply by her own name, though a few alternative weekly papers continue to use the Slowpoke name.

Sorensen has published three volumes of cartoons: Slowpoke: Café Pompous from 2001, Slowpoke: America Gone Bonkers from 2004 and her latest book, Slowpoke: One Nation Oh My God! published in 2008. Besides her weekly political cartoon, she has produced illustrations for such periodicals as Nickelodeon Magazine, The American Prospect, The Dallas Observer, Women's Review of Books, and MAD Magazine.

She has written and illustrated a number of long-form comics, most notably a piece on health care reform commissioned by Kaiser Health News, and a synopsis of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice for NPR.

She has been interviewed by the Washington Post as well as the University of Virginia Magazine; the latter web article has a video of Sorensen working.

In 2014 she became the first woman to win the Herblock Prize.

She also writes a political weblog on her site.

• 2000: Xeric Award
• 2005: Alternative Newsweekly Award, Cartoon (Five or fewer papers), 1st Place
• 2009: The Grambs Aronson Award for Cartooning With a Conscience, Hunter College
• 2012: Alternative Newsweekly Award, Cartoon, 1st Place
• 2012: Herblock Prize Finalist
• 2013: Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award
• 2013: National Cartoonist Society Award for Best Editorial Cartoon
• 2014: Herblock Prize .

Sorensen has written the following books, published by Alternative Comics, which are generally compilations of the weekly comic strip, although the first book contained entirely new material.

• Slowpoke Comix #1 - 1998 (Alternative Comics) (OCLC 63661994)
• Slowpoke: Café Pompous - 2001 (Alternative Comics) (ISBN 1-891867-02-4)
• Slowpoke: America Gone Bonkers - 2004 (Alternative Comics) (ISBN 1-891867-78-4)
• Slowpoke: One Nation, Oh My God! - 2008 (Ig Publishing) (ISBN 0-978843-16-9)