Lauren Groff

Lauren Groff (born July 23, 1978) is an American novelist and short story writer. She has written four novels and two short story collections, including Fates and Furies (2015), Florida (2018), and Matrix (2021). Groff's 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. The novel 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.