Joel C. Rosenberg
Joel C. Rosenberg is a New York Times bestselling author and a communications strategist who has worked with some of the world's most influential leaders in business, politics and media, including Steve Forbes, Rush Limbaugh, and Benjamin Netanyahu.
Mr. Rosenberg began writing his first novel - a political thriller called The Last Jihad - nine months before September 11, 2001. But remarkably The Last Jihad tells the story of a kamikaze airplane attack on an American city that leads to a showdown between the U.S. and Saddam Hussein over weapons of mass destruction. When published by Forge Books in the Fall of 2002, The Last Jihad spent eleven weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, reaching as high as #7. It raced up the USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists, hit #4 on the Wall Street Journal list and hit #1 on Amazon.com.
Mr. Rosenberg's second thriller - The Last Days (Forge, Oct. 2003) - picks up the story just after Saddam's regime has been toppled. A White House Middle East peace plan goes awry when Yasser Arafat is assassinated. A wave of suicide bombers target the U.S. homeland. A team of Jewish terrorists try to blow up the Dome of the Rock in hopes of building a Third Jewish Temple. And two Americans find themselves caught in the crossfire. The Last Days spent four weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, hit #8 on the Dallas Morning News list and hit #5 on the Denver Post list. A Hollywood producer recently optioned the rights to both of Mr. Rosenberg's novels for a major motion picture.
Rush Limbaugh said The Last Jihad is "amazing…I could not put this book down…You have to read this."
Sean Hannity called The Last Days "riveting to the point you can't put it down - a heart-pounding, edge of your seat roller coaster ride."
The New York Times called Mr. Rosenberg "a Washington success story."
FORBES magazine said The Last Days is a "rip-roaring, heart-pounding, page-turning, high-octane geopolitical adventure….the action never stops from the first sentence to the last."
U.S. News & World Report said Rosenberg's novels are so close to reality he seems like a "modern Nostradamus."
CNN Headline News said "J.K. Rowling may be the writer of the moment for the young and the young at heart. But for many adults Joel Rosenberg is the 'it author' right now. Inside and outside the beltway in Washington, people are snatching up copies of his almost life-like terrorist suspense novels."
Michael Reagan said "The Last Days is a gutsy new breed of political thriller - almost prophetically forecasting what you'll read in tomorrow's headlines….Rosenberg is a rising new star on the American fiction scene."
From 2000 through 2003, Mr. Rosenberg served as a political columnist for WORLD magazine, the nation's leading conservative weekly newsmagazine with 400,000 readers. In 2000, he served as a senior advisor to former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Natan Sharansky.
From 1996 through 2000, Mr. Rosenberg was a senior aide to Steve Forbes, serving variously as communications director, chief speechwriter and during the 2000 caucus and primary season as Deputy Campaign Manager. From 1994 to 1996, he served as Rush Limbaugh's Research Director and as a writer for The Limbaugh Letter, the nation's leading conservative political newsletter. In March 1995, Mr. Rosenberg was profiled on the front page of the Sunday New York Times and described as "a force in the capital." Previously, Mr. Rosenberg served as a policy analyst for William Bennett, Jack Kemp and Jeane Kirkpatrick at Empower America from 1993-1994, and worked for The Heritage Foundation from 1990 through 1993.
Mr. Rosenberg graduated from Syracuse University in 1989 with a B.F.A. in film-making. He also studied at Tel Aviv University in 1987-1988. He is married, has three sons, and lives near Washington, D.C.
Back to the Capital Book Festival