After receiving hundreds of entries from 34 countries, Reason Foundation is pleased to announce the six finalists for the 2012 Bastiat Prize, which honors the writers who best explain the importance of freedom with originality, wit, and eloquence. The finalists for the 2012 Bastiat Prize are:
- Brent Batten, Naples Daily News
- Caroline Baum, Bloomberg
- Anne Jolis, The Wall Street Journal Europe
- Matthew Kaminski, The Wall Street Journal
- John Robson, Ottawa Sun
- Adrian Wooldridge, The Economist
The winner and runners-up will be announced at Reason Foundation’s Bastiat Prize dinner in New York City on November 8, 2012. The Bastiat Prize winner will receive $10,000, second-place will collect $4,000 and third-place will receive $1,000. The top three will also be awarded an engraved crystal candlestick—a nod to Frédéric Bastiat’s most famous essay.
Previous Bastiat Prize winners include Virginia Postrel, Tim Harford, Mary Anastasia O’Grady, Robert Guest, Sauvik Chakraverti, and Amity Shlaes.
This year’s Bastiat Prize judges are:
- A. Barton Hinkle (Columnist, Richmond Times-Dispatch)
- Charles Kadlec (Columnist, Forbes)
- Megan McArdle (Columnist, Daily Beast)
- Russ Roberts (Professor, George Mason University)
- Louis Rossetto (Founder, Wired Magazine)
- Russ Smith (Founder, Washington City Paper and New York Press)
For more information about the Bastiat Prize dinner, please contact Cynthia Bell at (202) 986-0916 or cynthia.bell@reason.org.