Introduction
Nicholas John Gillespie (/ɡɪˈlɛspi/; born August 7, 1963) is an American libertarian journalist who was former editor-in-chief of Reason magazine from 2000 to 2008. He is currently a contributing editor of Reason.com and the editor-in-chief at Reason.tv. He has written articles or been a commentator for a variety of media outlets. Gillespie has edited one anthology, Choice: The Best of Reason, and co-authored one book, The Declaration of Independents.
Life and career
Gillespie was born in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in New Jersey. His educational history includes a B.A. in English and psychology from Rutgers University and a M.A. in English from Temple University, as well as a Ph.D. in English literature from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He has two sons, Jack and Neal Gillespie.
Prior to joining Reason, Gillespie worked at a number of small trade magazines and other journalistic outlets. He worked for several years at Teen Machine magazine, where he interviewed celebrities and ghost-wrote an advice column for actress Alyssa Milano.
News website The Daily Beast named Gillespie number 18 on their list of "The Right's Top 25 Journalists".
Gillespie shared the award for "Best Advocacy Journalism" at the 53rd Annual Southern California Journalism Awards with Drew Carey and Paul Feine for their work "Reason Saves Cleveland." He also received an honorable mention for "Best News Organization Website."
In 2011, Gillespie published The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong with America with Reason editor-in-chief Matt Welch.