Winning the Sami Rohr Prize, the largest cash prize offered to writers in the United States, has been a game-changer for me. The Rohr family has said they hope the prize will help sustain a young writer in the same way a burst of oxygen invigorates a plant, and it has done exactly that. By securing publicity for my work in The New York Times Arts section, The New York Times Book Review, and many other national news outlets, it has expanded my readership and my public profile. More than anything, this sort of encouragement from the esteemed panel of Rohr judges has bolstered my confidence as I continue on in this sometimes lonely and precarious career. Since winning the prize, I have sold another novel, In the Land of the Living, forthcoming from Little Brown in 2013, and in 2012 Viking will be publishing a UK edition of The Jump Artist, the 2011 Rohr Prize winner. The Rohr family and the Jewish Book Council have my eternal gratitude.
-- Austin Ratner
2011 Sami Rohr Prize Winner