Lauren Groff was born in Cooperstown, New York. She has a BA from Amherst College and an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and has won fellowships to the Vermont Studio Center and Yaddo. Her debut novel, The Monsters of Templeton, was a New York Times Bestseller and was shortlisted for the Orange Broadband Award for New Writers 2008. She lives in Gainesville, Florida and is at work on her second novel.