An Evening with Lauren Groff and Marion Turner

Frances A. McAnaney Humanities Lecture presents
An Evening with Lauren Groff and Marion Turner

Join us for an evening of conversation with NYT bestselling author Lauren Groff
and Oxford professor and acclaimed Chaucerian, Marion Turner 

On September 23, The New York Times bestselling author of Matrix and Fates and Furies, Lauren Groff, will be joined on the O'Laughlin Auditorium stage by acclaimed Chaucerian, Oxford professor Marion Turner. Turner is the author of The Wife of Bath: A Biography. Together, they will explore the relationship between literature and history, between storytelling and truth-telling, as they consider how we tell the story of a historical figure and the history of a literary figure.

This is a ticketed event.

Saint Mary's College students with ID can attend at no charge. Special discounts are also available for area educators and their students; contact hust@saintmarys.edu for more information. Tickets for this event will be available beginning August 3, 2026. 

About Lauren Groff
Lauren Groff is the award-winning and bestselling author of the celebrated short story collections, Delicate Edible Birds, Florida, a finalist for the National Book Award, and Brawler, as well as several novels: The Monsters of Templeton, shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New Writers, Arcadia, winner of the Medici Book Club Prize, Fates and Furies, a finalist for the National Book Award and Amazon's pick for Best Book of the Year, and the instant New York Times bestsellers Matrix and The Vaster Wilds. Groff is a captivating and thoughtful speaker who loves connecting with audiences over discussion of her bestselling works. She is also a co-owner of the independent bookstore The Lynx. 

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 L.A. Times Book Prize. She lives in Gainsville, Florida with her husband and two sons.

About Marion Turner
Marion Turner is the J.R.R. Tolkien Professor of English Literature and Language at the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall. She is the author of numerous books, including Chaucer: A European Life (Princeton, 2019) and The Wife of Bath: A Biography (Princeton, 2023) both of which won many prizes and accolades. Her books have been picked as books of the year by many publications including The New Yorker, The Times, the TLS, and BBC History. Her next book—Reading Fiction: A History—will come out in 2027. Turner regularly appears on radio and TV, and often gives public lectures, speaks at literary festivals, and works with schools, libraries, museums, and literary societies. Marion is passionate about opening up access to older literature and breaking down perceived barriers to reading and engaging with these wonderful texts

About the Francis A. McAnaney Humanities Lecture

Lauren Groff and Marion Turner join us as part of the Francis A. McAnaney Humanities Lecture, previously known as the Christian Culture Lecture. This lecture series has welcomed remarkable writers, historians, philosophers, and theologians to campus for more than 15 years. The Francis A. McAnaney Humanities Lecture has been endowed by a gift from the Peter B. and Adeline W. Ruffin Foundation. This continues a lecture series revived by Donald and Susan Rice ’61 in 2006 in memory of Bruno P. Schlesinger.