Next Reader

Photo Credit: Thomas Doyle

Lauren Acampora

Welles-Brown Room, Rush Rhees Library

October 27, 2026, 5:00 PM

Lauren Acampora is the author of The Animal Room, released in June 2026, and three other books of fiction: The Wonder Garden, The Paper Wasp, and The Hundred Waters, all published by Grove Atlantic. Her work has won or been nominated for the GLCA New Writers Award, the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, the Story Prize, and the New England Book Award, and she’s been named an Artist Fellow in Fiction by The New York Foundation for the Arts. Lauren’s writing has also appeared in many publications such as The Paris Review, One Story, and The New York Times and was anthologized in The Best American Short Stories 2025. She lives with her family in Westchester County, New York.