Biography of Lauren Groff

Lauren Groff is the author of the New York Times bestselling MONSTERS OF TEMPLETON and the critically acclaimed short story collection DELICATE EDIBLE BIRDS. She has a BA from Amherst College and an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her short stories have appeared in several literary publications, including The Atlantic Monthly and Ploughshares, and she has won fellowships to the Vermont Studio Center and Yaddo.

Good To Know

Many-if not most-of my ancestors are Mennonite or Amish, all Pennsylvania Dutch-my grandfather still can speak Pennsylvania Dutch, and there's a Groffdale in Lancaster County filled with people who look curiously like me.

I spent a year between high school and college as a Rotary Youth Exchange Student in Nantes, France-mostly in the house of a family with a catering business (when I returned from France, I'd gained so much weight that my parents didn't recognize me at first in the airport).

My sister Sarah is an elite triathlete, fourth in the US, trying to make the an Olympic berth for Beijing this summer. She's definitely my hero.