Lauren Groff

Lauren Groff (born July 23, 1978) is an American novelist and short story writer.

Biography

Groff was born and raised in Cooperstown, New York. She graduated from Amherst College and from the University of Wisconsin–Madison with an MFA in fiction.

Career

Groff is the author of three novels and a short story collection. Her first novel, The Monsters of Templeton, was published by Hyperion on February 5, 2008 and debuted on the New York Times bestseller list. It was well received by Stephen King, who read it before publication and wrote an early review in Entertainment Weekly. It was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New Writers in 2008, and was named one of the Best Books of 2008 by Amazon.com and the San Francisco Chronicle.

The Monsters of Templeton is a contemporary tale about coming home to Templeton, a representation of Cooperstown, New York. It is interspersed with voices from characters drawn from the town's history as well as James Fenimore Cooper's The Pioneers, which is also set in a fictionalized Cooperstown which he also calls Templeton.