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Aspen Words was founded in 1976 as a literary center based in Aspen, CO, as a program of the Aspen Institute, with a mission to encourage writers, inspire readers, and connect people through the power of stories. AW’s year-round programs include Summer Words, a writing conference; Winter Words, a speaker series presenting the best of contemporary literature; the Aspen Words Literary Prize, a $35,000 annual award for fiction with social impact; as well as a writers-in-the schools program and writing residencies. Learn more at aspenwords.org.

Aspen Words: Winter Words with Lauren Groff

Lauren Groff at Aspen Winter Words, Paepke Auditorium in Aspen, CO.
Lauren Groff at Aspen Winter Words, Paepke Auditorium in Aspen, CO.

This event was recorded on February 12, 2025 at Paepcke Auditorium, as part of the 2025 Winter Words series, in partnership with Aspen Public Radio.

Lauren Groff discusses her most recent novel “The Vaster Wilds,” which plunges readers into colonial America’s wilderness through the eyes of a young servant girl fleeing the famine of Jamestown. As she navigates nature’s brutal beauty and the edges of survival, Groff crafts an electrifying exploration of resilience, self-discovery, and the precarious line between civilization and wildness.

Moderated by Mitzi Rapkin

About the Author

Lauren Groff is a three-time National Book Award finalist and The New York Times–bestselling author of the novels “The Monsters of Templeton,” “Arcadia, Fates and Furies, Matrix” and “The Vaster Wilds,” and the celebrated short story collections “Delicate Edible Birds and Florida.” She has won The Story Prize, the ABA Indies’ Choice Award, France’s Grand Prix de l’Héroïne and the Joyce Carol Oates Prize and has been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her work regularly appears in The New Yorker, The Atlantic and elsewhere. Her work has been translated into thirty-six languages. She lives in Gainesville, Florida.