Bookstore will host a reading and book signing for up-and-coming literary star Lauren Groff on Tuesday, February 24th beginning at 7 PM at the Crescent Hill location, 2720 Frankfort Avenue.

Ms. Groff will read from her new short story collection, Delicate Edible Birds, just published by Voice, an imprint of Hyperion Publishers which focuses on literary women's fiction. The title story is a harrowing, powerfully moving drama about a group of war correspondents who fall prey to a frightening man in the French countryside while fleeing the Nazis.  Each of the book's nine tales of vastly different style and structure reveal her gift for storytelling and her ability to make the ordinary appear magical.

Lauren Groff's first novel, The Monsters of Templeton, was published last February to rave reviews and quickly became a favorite of independent booksellers and book groups. The book was given an unexpected but welcome boost when Stephen King praised it as "doing that thing that all good novels are supposed to do, provide you a magical experience."  Monsters was also a favorite at Carmichael's, landing on the store's list of Favorite Books of 2008.

Lauren Groff has an MFA in fiction and spent six months in Louisville in 2007 when she was awarded the Axton Fellowship in Fiction by the University of Louisville.  Her stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories, Pushcart Prize collections, and Best New American Voices 2008.  The Monsters of Templeton was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New Writers.