AUTHOR OF SURPRISE BESTSELLER THE MONSTERS OF TEMPLETON,
TO READ FROM HER NEW NOVEL, ARCADIA, SET IN UPSTATE NEW YORK

NYS Writers Institute, March 27, 2012
8:00 p.m. Reading | Assembly Hall, Campus Center, Uptown Campus
4:15 p.m. Seminar | Assembly Hall, Campus Center, Uptown Campus

CALENDAR LISTING:
Lauren Groff, author of acclaimed fiction set in upstate New York including the national bestseller, The Monsters of Templeton (2008) and the new novel, Arcadia (2012), will read from her work on Tuesday, March 27, 2012 at 8:00 p.m. in the Assembly Hall, Campus Center, on the University at Albany’s uptown campus. Earlier that day at 4:15 p.m., the author will present an informal seminar in the same location. The events are sponsored by the New York State Writers Institute, and are free and open to the public.

PROFILE
Lauren Groff’s first novel was the surprise bestseller, The Monsters of Templeton (2008), the story of a graduate student of archaeology who digs up dark secrets in Templeton, a stand-in for her hometown—Cooperstown, New York. The novel pays homage to upstate New York history and to the frontier fiction of James Fenimore Cooper. A New York Times and Booksense bestseller, the novel was also shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New Writers. In advance praise,short story writer Lorrie Moore called it, “a bold and beautiful hybrid of a book.” Bestselling novelist Stephen King said, “I was sorry to see this rich and wonderful novel come to an end, and there is no higher success than that.”

Groff’s new novel is Arcadia (2012), the story of a sensitive boy (“Bit”) who grows up in an upstate New York Utopian community that falls apart as the idealistic characters, including Bit’s parents, gradually succumb to hunger, cold, illness and injury. The novel also moves forward in time to follow Bit’s experiences as a 50-year-old husband, father and professional photographer in an apocalyptic future set in the year 2018.

In advance praise, Pulitzer Prize-winning Gloversville novelist Richard Russo said, “Richly peopled and ambitious and oh, so lovely, Lauren Groff’s Arcadia is one of the most moving and satisfying novels I’ve read in a long time. It’s not possible to write any better without showing off.” Novelist Kate Walbert said, “Part Stone Diaries, part Lord of the Flies, part something out of a Shakespearean tragedy, Lauren Groff’s Arcadia is so uniquely absorbing that you finish it as if waking from a dream. Groff is one of our most talented writers, and Arcadia one of the most revelatory, magical, and ambitious novels I’ve read in years.”

Due out in March 2012, the book has already received starred reviews in all of the major publishing industry magazines, including Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and Booklist. The Library Journal reviewer called it “Ambrosia for book clubs.”

The prize-winning author of numerous short stories, Groff is also the author of the story collection, Delicate Edible Birds (2009). Several of the stories were previously (or subsequently) published in Best New American Voices 2008, Pushcart Prize XXXII, and Best American Short Stories (2007 and 2010 editions). The Library Journal reviewer said in a starred review, “Nine wildly unique, exquisitely symphonic tales, full of beauty, tragedy, and the sudden horror of shocking images....Groff moves among these wholly unrelated worlds with a vision that happily traps the reader. Highly recommended.” Ms. Magazine said, “Groff's short stories are wholly realized, intricately constructed and compulsively readable. Her odd analogies and images bring new dimension to tales of small-town scandal, love affairs and stunning, incalculable loss.”

Born in Cooperstown in 1978, Groff lives with her family in Gainesville, Florida.