American · b. 1978
Lauren Groff writes sentences that demand rereading. The American author's "Fates and Furies" (2015) tells a marriage from both sides, revealing how little either spouse knows the other. "Florida" (2018) transforms the subtropical state into a site of menace and strange beauty. "Matrix" (2021) follows the medieval abbess Marie de France as she builds a women's community in the English fens—a feminist historical novel that reads like a fever dream. Groff has been a finalist for the National Book Award multiple times. Her prose is dense, rhythmic, and ruthless.