Florida is one of those Janus-faced states. On one hand, it conjures up images of pristine beaches, joyful theme parks, lazy days in the sun, and pulsing fun. On the other, it’s the laughing stock of the U.S., the seemingly inevitable setting for every outlandish news item — perhaps you’ve seen the meme of Bugs Bunny sawing off the state from the rest of the country? In Lauren Groff’s latest novel, the brilliant Florida, the New York native cuts through to a different version of the Sunshine State — and it’s much more real and alive than those Saran-wrapped stereotypes.

A collection of 11 short stories that mostly take place in Florida, the book exposes a silently darker side, one filled as much with dread and humming anxiety as it is with alligators, sinkholes and hurricanes — “an Eden of dangerous things,” writes Groff, whose last work, Fates and Furies, was a National Book Award finalist and named book of the year by both Amazon and President Barack Obama. There are abandoned sisters on an island, a grad student slipping into homelessness, a mother who walks into the night after dinner because “I have somehow become a woman who yells.”

Florida is a pleasurable read. Groff’s writing is engrossing; the way she strings her words and descriptions together, powerful — and the images and emotions they evoke are, too. As one colleague remarked, “I wanted to live with her characters for longer.” Here, we talk to the author.

The backstory behind Florida and the decision to set it in the state…
​I have an extraordinarily complex relationship with the state of Florida — I am there because of my husband’s work, and have an aversion to humidity and heat and bugs and reptiles and its retrograde politics — but I’ve learned to love parts of the state.​
​My idea of heaven is floating down on the cold springs that run through the center of the state with my family. This story collection came out of my intense sense of ambivalence, which isn’t wishy-washiness so much as it’s strong feelings in opposite directions. ​

Most challenging part about writing this book…
​It took me 12 years to write this book — I write short stories as brief and urgent bursts in between the novels I’m always writing — so the long, slow simmering of the collection was a little ​difficult for my slightly impatient heart.

Favorite short story in this collection…
​I love all my stories equally, but “Yport”​ took longest to write, and it’s the story that I may be proudest of.

My writing process for Florida…
​Was to spend as much time as I could in the world of the novels I was writing, and to let the stories simmer at the back of my mind until they became so loud and so urgent that I could no longer see the novel I was writing. Then I’d sit down and write the first draft (usually of many) in one big, ecstatic burst of energy.​

My general writing routine…
​I write in the early morning before sunrise when nobody else is awake, and the dark is a friend in the window. My husband gets my children ready for school so that I can hang on as long as possible to this feeling of being alone with the work, with nobody else’s voice in my head.​

Book that made me want to be a writer…
​My friend Lisa gave me a book of Emily Dickinson’s when I was 12, and it made me want to be a poet. My poetry morphed into fiction pretty quickly, but I read a great deal of poetry because I love the enigma and sharpness and structure you find there.

I combat writer’s block by…
​I don’t like to think of creativity according to the warlike or sports-like terminology often used to discuss it. I feel as though turning your art into a foe or competitor is a bad idea, so I don’t wrestle with my work, I don’t fight it, I don’t combat writer’s block. ​I do try to find where the heat and energy are in what I’m doing and to daily, with patience and attention, go there until I understand what it is I’m doing. Sometimes, a person has to lie fallow for a little while before they can begin to produce again — it’s natural and a kind thing to the work and to one’s self to embrace as fully as possible.

Best writing advice received…
When I was growing, whenever I’d disappointed myself, my dad always said, in true, cheesy dad-manner, “Do your best and forget the rest.” It makes me cringe, but it’s an excellent way to face the work, as well as the larger world. ​

Book I always give as a gift…
​I love giving Maggie Nelson’s Bluets, Evan S. Connell’s Mrs. Bridge, or ​​Toni Morrison’s Beloved.​

If I could be any character in a book for a day…
​I’d be Alice the day after she returned from Wonderland.​