Pulitzer Prize-winning author at Writers and Readers Week

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Pulitzer Prize-winning author at Writers and Readers Week

"In China today, Bill Gates is Britney Spears. In America today, Britney Spears is Britney Spears - and that is our problem." - Thomas L. Friedman

Three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and best-selling author Thomas L Friedman will be a key note speaker at the New Zealand International Arts Festival’s Writers and Readers Week, from 9-14 March 2012.

Foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times since 1995, Friedman has been described as one of the world’s most influential public intellectuals. His work on globalisation, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, has sold more than four million copies in thirty-seven languages. Other titles include From Beirut to Jerusalem, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, Hot Flat and Crowded and Longitudes and Attitudes: Exploring the World after September 11.

Friedman is an outspoken commentator on global affairs with a unique ability to focus on the social, economic, political and environmental trends shaping our world.

In his latest book, That Used to be Us, Friedman examines four major challenges facing America today – globalisation, the revolution in information technology, the nation’s chronic deficits, and its pattern of energy consumption. That Used to be Us has been described as both a searching exploration of the American condition today and a rousing manifesto for American renewal.

Friedman’s career with The New York Times includes postings in Beirut and Jerusalem at flashpoints in those countries’ histories. He was also the paper’s chief White House correspondent during the first year of the Clinton administration.

For further information, visit www.festival.co.nz or www.thomaslfriedman.com

ENDS

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