by | March 30, 2026
Author Lauren Groff Says Florida Gave Her Literary Life
Gainesville-based author Lauren Groff talks about the untamed state of Florida and her latest collection of short stories, “Brawler.”
An unprepared woman riding out a Category 5 hurricane. Two abandoned children befriending nature on a sun-bleached island. A mother, her two sons and a writer’s ghost wandering the French coast. New York Times bestselling author Lauren Groff is known for creating characters in states of peril—both literal and internal—throughout her books that include “Florida” and “Matrix.” Her latest anthology, “Brawler,” spans across decades, state lines and lives. In one story, Groff pays a visit to a Sunland facility based on the real chain of state-run psychiatric hospitals that once operated in Florida. Her new book explores outgrown relationships, pockets of historical vulnerability and unexpected wildness.
“Oh, Florida gave me my literary life,” Groff said in an interview with Flamingo while reflecting on her latest book, her love for the Sunshine State and why she opened her Gainesville bookstore, The Lynx. The following are excerpts from that conversation.
How do you create cohesion across such a diverse set of characters and settings in “Brawler”?
Lauren Groff: Because story collections take so long to write (the earliest story in this one is from 2016), and I only write stories that feel urgent to me, what happens is that I end up with between 15-20 stories that I could put in a collection. I have to go through and do some weeding and ordering so that the collection feels as though it’s making a larger statement or argument. I knew as soon as I wrote them that “The Wind” would be my first story and “Annunciation” would be the last, but the slow build from story to story between the two was the work of care and love and time.
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Looking back at “Florida” how does the relationship between character and place evolve in “Brawler”?
LG: “Brawler” is a bit more diffuse, geographically: We have Florida, of course, but also New York, California, Italy, Nantucket, New Hampshire, Boston and on and on. But I’m a firm believer that all characters are, in the end, only human, which means that they’re sophisticated animals. And as with all animals, they are profoundly changed by minute environmental cues. The same characters in the same situations would react differently if they were put in different environments. The same married couple with the same set of grievances would react radically differently if their breakup scene was shivering on Mount Everest, or if they’re half-naked at a Caribbean beach resort. Our emotional landscapes are inherently tied to our physical landscapes. I have to establish place in extreme specificity before I understand how my characters will engage with each other.
How does living in Florida influence your perspective in writing?
LG: Oh, Florida gave me my literary life. I came here in 2006, shortly after graduating with a Master of Fine Arts. I knew nobody, which was excellent for the life of solitude that I needed to finish my first few books. I belatedly began to love Florida for its own wackadoodle, stunningly gorgeous, heartbreaking sake, and was taught this love by other Florida writers. I think it’s good to never feel fully integrated into one’s daily life as a creative person. You can’t really write from the center, you have to always write a little bit from the side. I love that no matter how long I live here, there will be a part of Florida that makes me feel like a bewildered alien.
What elements of the state’s landscape, culture or people are in the themes of your books?
LG: I think all of my Florida characters feel ambivalence toward the state, not because they don’t love it, but because ambivalence means tremendously strong feelings in both directions: passionate love mixed with fear and anger and confusion. I write literary fiction, which means that there is no such thing as a single story—I’m trying to find multiple levels of meaning in all stories. Florida has given me deep insights into layered thinking and feeling.
What drew you to open your bookstore, The Lynx?
LG: In the spring of 2023, I had a fellowship at the American Academy in Berlin, when (Gov. Ron) DeSantis decided to make it easy for basically anyone to challenge books in public schools. Note that none of this applied to private schools. Republicans are deliberately trying to starve our children in public schools of critical thinking skills so that parents with means will pull children out of our great American wealth of public education and put their children into private schools. Germans told me that book bans are the point of the spear of authoritarianism—all modern genocides have begun with book bans or burns to make enemies of the people whose work, thoughts and representations are being censured. They told me I had to do something about it. When my husband and I returned at the end of the summer, we looked for a location, got the keys in January 2024, and were open by the end of April 2024.
What do you hope readers gain from your latest book?
LG: A story collection is meant to meet you where you are, and to shine light into the places that have been dark to you for a while. I hope this collection shows my readers parts of themselves they haven’t examined. I hope all of my books become good companions, friends of my readers.
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About the Author
As a born-and-raised Floridian, Emilee loves to write, read and talk about the Sunshine State. She graduated from Florida State University with a degree in editing, writing and media. Now, Emilee uses her skills to edit our print issues and online content, as well as write our weekly e-newsletter, Fresh Squeezed.
