Lauren Groff is an acclaimed American novelist and short story writer. She was born on July 23, 1978, in Cooperstown, New York, just a block away from the Baseball Hall of Fame. Groff pursued her undergraduate studies at Amherst College and later attained an MFA in fiction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Groff's literary career is marked by numerous celebrated works. Her debut novel, The Monsters of Templeton, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New Writers. She also authored Delicate Edible Birds, a collection of stories, and Arcadia, which was a New York Times Notable Book and won the Medici Book Club Prize. Her third novel, Fates and Furies, achieved significant acclaim, becoming a finalist for the National Book Award in Fiction and winning the 2015 American Booksellers’ Association Indies’ Choice Award for Fiction. This novel was also named Amazon.com's #1 book of 2015.

Another notable work, Florida, a collection of stories released in June 2018, won the Story Prize and was a finalist for prestigious awards such as the National Book Award and the Kirkus Prize. Groff's stories have been published in renowned journals, including the New Yorker, the Atlantic Monthly, and Harper’s. Her contributions have also appeared in anthologies like 100 Years of the Best American Short Stories and several editions of the Best American Short Stories.

In 2017, Granta Magazine recognized her as one of the Best of Young American Novelists. A year later, she received a Guggenheim fellowship in Fiction and a Fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Groff continues to reside in Gainesville, Florida, with her husband, two sons, and their dog.