Groff’s latest novel, The Vaster Wilds, was named a best book of the year by NPR, Time, Vogue, LA Times, Slate and more
SUMMARY
- Tue, April 9 | 7:30 p.m. | Campbell Hall
- The three-time National Book Award finalist and bestselling author will sit down with Pico Iyer for a colorful conversation on her extensive and thrilling body of work
- Speaking with Pico series purchase includes a copy of Groff’s new book, The Vaster Wilds (pick up at event)
- Both Lauren Groff and Pico Iyer will sign books following the presentation
- $35 / $20 / $10 UCSB students (Current student ID required)
- Tickets & Info: www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu
“A gifted writer capable of deft pyrotechnics and well up to the challenges she sets herself.” New York Times Book Review
“The Vaster Wilds is already the one novel this year I think belongs instantly in the canon.” – Pico Iyer
“A rich, enthralling fictional world that’s not to be missed.” Santa Barbara Independent
SANTA BARBARA — UCSB Arts & Lectures presents Lauren Groff in conversation with Pico Iyer on Tuesday, April 9 at 7:30 p.m. at Campbell Hall. A three-time National Book Award finalist, bestselling novelist and short story writer, Lauren Groff spins highly imaginative fiction out of an acute awareness of the historical forces that shape human behavior. In a six-book oeuvre that spans centuries and embraces a variety of diverse settings, Groff elevates gripping storylines with electrifying prose and startling, unforgettable descriptions. Known for literary masterpieces such as Fates and Furies and Matrix, her latest novel is The Vaster Wilds, a thrilling adventure story set in the wilderness of colonial America. Both Groff and moderator Pico Iyer will be available following the presentation to sign books.
ABOUT LAUREN GROFF
Lauren Groff is the New York Times bestselling author of five novels, The Monsters of Templeton, Arcadia, Fates and Furies, Matrix and The Vaster Wilds, as well as the celebrated short-story collections Delicate Edible Birdsand Florida, a 2018 National Book Award finalist. She graduated from Amherst College and has an MFA in fiction from the University of Wisconsin Madison.
In her lectures, Groff captivates audiences with thoughtful reflections on the writing craft and discussion of the influences and inspiration behind her bestselling works.
Fates and Furies was a New York Times bestseller, a finalist for the National Book Award, and Amazon’s #1 Best Book of the Year in 2015. It is an exhilarating novel about marriage, creativity, art and perception, and has garnered tremendous critical acclaim. Her followup book, Florida, was similarly acclaimed and was nominated for the 2018 National Book Award and won the prestigious annual Story Prize. Her novel Matrix was an instant New York Times bestseller, winner of the 2022 Joyce Carol Oates Prize and a finalist for the 2021 National Book Award. Her latest book, The Vaster Wilds, was named a best book of the year by NPR, Time, Vogue, the Los Angeles Times, Slate and more. She also edited a collection of stories by author Nancy Hale entitled Where the Light Falls, bringing a forgotten master of the short story back into the literary conversation.
Lauren Groff’s work has appeared in a number of magazines, including The New Yorker, Harper’s and The Atlantic, and in several of the annual The Best American Short Stories anthologies. Groff’s fiction has won the Paul Bowles Prize for Fiction, the Medici Book Club Prize, the PEN/O. Henry Award, and the Pushcart Prize, and has been shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New Writers and a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize. She lives in Gainesville, Florida with her husband and two sons.
ABOUT PICO IYER
Pico Iyer is the author of 16 books, translated into 23 languages, and dealing with subjects ranging from the XIVth Dalai Lama to Islamic mysticism and from globalism to the Cuban Revolution. They include such long-running sellers as Video Night in Kathmandu, The Lady and the Monk, The Global Soul and The Art of Stillness. His latest, The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise, has been a national bestseller, and he’s just completing his next work, on his first 32 years with a community of Benedictine monks in Big Sur. He has also written the introductions to more than 70 other books, the liner notes for many Leonard Cohen albums and Criterion Collection movies and a screenplay for Miramax. Since 1986 he has been a regular essayist for Time, The New York Times, Harper’s, The New York Review of Books and many others.
His four TED talks have received more than 11 million views, and he has been featured in program-length interviews with Oprah, Krista Tippett and Larry King, among others.
Born in Oxford, England in 1957, Iyer was a King’s Scholar at Eton and was awarded a Congratulatory Double First at Oxford, where he received the highest marks of any student on English Literature at the university. He received a second master’s degree at Harvard and was recently a Ferris Professor at Princeton.
ABOUT UCSB ARTS & LECTURES
Founded in 1959, UCSB Arts & Lectures (A&L) is the largest and most influential arts and lectures organization between Los Angeles and San Francisco. A&L annually presents more than a hundred public events, from critically acclaimed concerts and dance performances by world-renowned artists to talks by groundbreaking authors and film series at UCSB and Santa Barbara-area venues. With a mission to “educate, entertain and inspire,” A&L also oversees an outreach program that brings visiting artists and speakers into local classrooms and other venues for master classes, open rehearsals, discussions and more, serving K-12 students, college students and the general public.
Lauren Groff is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures
Speaking with Pico Series Sponsors: Martha Gabbert, Siri & Bob Marshall, and Laura & Kevin O’Connor
Tickets are $35 / $20 / $10 UCSB students (Current student ID required) Purchasers of the Speaking with Pico series will receive complimentary copies of The Vaster Wilds.
For tickets or more information, call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535 or purchase online at www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu.
UCSB Arts & Lectures gratefully acknowledges our Community Partners the Natalie Orfalea Foundation & Lou Buglioli for their generous support of the 2023-2024 season.