©2009 Clay Bennett

Clay Bennett was born January 20, 1958 in Clinton, South Carolina. The son of a career army officer, he led a nomadic life, attending ten different schools before graduating in 1976 from S. R. Butler High School in Huntsville, Alabama.

He served as editorial cartoonist for his college paper and managing editor of the alternative student newspaper while attending the University of North Alabama, where he graduated in 1980 with degrees in Art and History

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He worked briefly as a staff artist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The Fayetteville (NC) Times, before going on to serve as the editorial cartoonist for the St. Petersburg Times (1981-1994) and The Christian Science Monitor (1997-2007). He now draws five cartoons a week for the Chattanooga Times Free Press, having joined its staff in 2008.

Recipient of The Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 2002, Bennett has earned almost every honor his profession has to offer, including the Sigma Delta Chi Award (2001), the National Journalism Award (2002), the National Cartoonist Society's Award for Editorial Cartoons (2002), the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award (2007), the John Fischetti Award twice (2001, 2005), the Overseas Press Club Award twice (2005, 2007), the National Headliner Award three times (1999, 2000, 2004), and was named 'Editorial Cartoonist of the Year' by Editor & Publisher magazine (2001).