Lauren Groff’s latest book, Florida (Riverhead Books, 2018), explores loneliness, rage, family, and the passage of time. With shocking accuracy and effect, she pinpoints the moments, decisions and connections behind human pleasure and pain, hope and despair, love and fury—the moments that make us alive. Florida won the Story Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award, the Southern Book Prize, and the Kirkus Prize. 

Groff is also the author of the short story collection, Delicate Edible Birds, and three novels: The Monsters of Templeton, a finalist for the Orange Prize for New Writers; Arcadia, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Fiction; and Fates and Furies, a finalist for the National Book Award, National Book Critics Circle Prize, and the Kirkus Prize, and the winner of the Grand Prix de l'Héroïne in France. 

Groff’s short fiction has won prizes including the Pushcart Prize, the PEN/O. Henry Prize, and the Paul Bowles Prize, and has appeared frequently in the New Yorker and the Best American Short Stories anthology. She has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Radcliffe Foundation, and her work has been published in over 30 languages. She lives in Gainesville, Florida.

This event is free and open to the public. Onsite book sales will be provided by Literati Bookstore.
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UMMA is pleased to be the site for the  Zell Visiting Writers Series, which brings outstanding writers each semester. The Series is made possible through a generous gift from U-M alumna Helen Zell (AB ’64, LLDHon ’13). For more information, please visit the Zell Visiting Writers Series webpage.

For any questions about the event or to share accommodation needs, please email asbates@umich.edu-- we are eager to help ensure that this event is inclusive to you. The building, event space, and restrooms are wheelchair accessible. Diaper changing tables are available in nearby restrooms. Gender-inclusive restrooms are available on the second floor of the Museum, accessible via the stairs, or in nearby Hatcher Graduate Library (Floors 3, 4, 5, and 6). The Hatcher Library also offers a reflection room (4th Floor South Stacks), and a lactation room (Room 13W, an anteroom to the basement women's staff restroom, or Room 108B, an anteroom of the first floor women's restroom). ASL interpreters and CART services are available upon request; please email asbates@umich.edu at least two weeks prior to the event. 
 
U-M employees with a U-M parking permit may use the Church Street Parking Structure (525 Church St., Ann Arbor) or the Thompson Parking Structure (500 Thompson St., Ann Arbor). There is limited metered street parking on State Street and South University Avenue. The Forest Avenue Public Parking Structure (650 South Forest Ave., Ann Arbor) is five blocks away, and the parking rate is $1.20 per hour. All of these options include parking spots for individuals with disabilities.