Joel C. Rosenberg was born on April 17, 1967 in Rochester, New York. He received a BFA in filmmaking from Syracuse University in 1988. He writes both fiction and nonfiction books. His fiction works include The Last Jihad, The Last Days, The Copper Scroll, Dead Heat, The Twelfth Imam, The Tehran Initiative, The Auschwitz Escape, and the J. B. Collins series. The Ezekiel Option was named by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association as the Gold Medallion winner of the Best Novel of 2006. His nonfiction works include Epicenter, Inside the Revolution, and Implosion: Can America Recover from Its Economic and Spiritual Challenges in Time?. He is also a communications strategist and has worked with Steve Forbes, Rush Limbaugh, former Israeli deputy prime minister Natan Sharansky, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He writes commentaries for National Review as well as a weekly e-mail update known as "Flash Traffic" for business and political leaders.