She graduated from Amherst College and from the University of Wisconsin—Madison with an MFA in fiction.

She is the author of The Monsters of Templeton which was published by Hyperion on February 5, 2008 and debuted at #14 on the New York Times Bestseller list. Her debut novel was well received by Stephen King, who read it before publication and compared it to the Harry Potter series in Entertainment Weekly.It was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New Writers in 2008, and was named one of the Best Books of 2008 by Amazon.com and the San Francisco Chronicle.

The Monsters of Templeton is a contemporary tale about coming home to Templeton, a representation of Cooperstown, NY. It is interspersed with voices from characters drawn from the town's history as well as James Fenimore Cooper's "The Pioneers" which is also set in a fictionalized Cooperstown which he also calls Templeton.

Groff has short stories published in The Atlantic Monthly, Five Points, and Ploughshares, and the anthologies Best New American Voices 2008, Pushcart Prize XXXII, and Best American Short Stories 2007. All of these stories appear in her collection of Short stories, Delicate Edible Birds which was released on January 27, 2009.

Her next novel, Arcadia is forthcoming.

Novels and Collections

• The Monsters of Templeton (2008)
• Delicate Edible Birds (2009)
• Arcadia (To Be Released)

Short Stories

• L. Debard and Aliette from The Atlantic Monthly
• Lucky Chow Fun from Ploughshares.
• The Ballad of Sad Ophine from Hobart
• Elaborate from Washington Square
• Delicate Edible Birds from Glimmer Train, Issue #70, Portland, Oregon,(Spring, 2009)