NEW ZEALAND BUSINESS ROUNDTABLE
MEDIA ADVISORY
6 November 2000
“SMARTEST WOMAN IN AMERICA” TO VISIT NZ
Best-selling author Virginia Postrel will visit New Zealand this month as a guest of the New Zealand Business Roundtable
(NZBR).
Virginia Postrel is editor-at-large of Reason, author of the best-selling The Future and its Enemies: The Growing
Conflict over Creativity, Enterprise and Progress and a columnist for Forbes, The New York Times, The Wall Street
Journal, The Washington Post and Wired.
Outspoken and well-known feminist Camille Paglia has described Ms Postrel as “one of the smartest women in America”,
with a “daunting gift for cutting-edge social and economic analysis”.
In The Future and its Enemies, which has achieved a demi-cult status, Ms Postrel argues that there is a new political
divide emerging representing two conflicting views of progress. On the one hand there are those who fear the future and
try to control it; on the other hand there are those who see the future as an exciting process of experimentation and
learning.
Ms Postrel puts the case for those who share a vision of an open society with predictable rules where creativity and
enterprise generate progress in unpredictable ways. She conducts a penetrating analysis of how the relations between
work and play shape the way we run businesses, make public policy and search for truth and beauty.
A brief biography of Virginia Postrel is attached for more information.
Ms Postrel is visiting New Zealand to address meetings in Wellington and Christchurch. She will be in New Zealand from
Wednesday 15 November to Saturday 18 November. Ms Postrel will be available for interviews during her stay by
arrangement.
VIRGINIA POSTREL
Virginia Postrel is editor-at-large of Reason, author of The Future and its Enemies: The Growing Conflict over
Creativity, Enterprise and Progress and a columnist for Forbes, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The
Washington Post and Wired. Outspoken and well-known feminist Camille Paglia has described her as “one of the smartest
women in America”, with a “daunting gift for cutting-edge social and economic analysis”.
Ms Postrel is visiting New Zealand as a guest of the New Zealand Business Roundtable to address meetings in Wellington
and Christchurch in November 2000.
Publications:
Look and Feel (to be published in 2002).
The Future and its Enemies: The Growing Conflict over Creativity, Enterprise and Progress (1998).
Free Minds and Free Markets (1993).
Many articles in a range of publications.
Achievements:
Various positions at Reason, ranging from editor-at-large, editor and associate editor (1989-present).
Member of advisory boards of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and the Center on Governance at UCLA.
Reporter for Inc. and The Wall Street Journal.
Degree in English, Princeton University.
Websites for further information:
Companion websites to The Future and its Enemies: www.dynamist.com and www.futureand.com
Reason magazine: www.reason.com
Reason Foundation: www.reason.org
The Reason Foundation is a Los Angeles-based research and educational institute promoting rationality and freedom as the
basic underpinnings of a good society. The Foundation publishes a monthly magazine, Reason, covering politics, culture
and ideas from a dynamic libertarian perspective.
Virginia Postrel is married and lives in Dallas, Texas.
ENDS