Simpson Smith came to UNC to earn a Ph.D. in history after graduating from Mount Holyoke College.
“I was just so entranced by the state when I moved here that I had to write a book about it,” she said.
Simpson Smith said her novel, which she will discuss at Flyleaf Books tonight, is set in the small town of Beaufort after a weekend road trip she took down the state’s coast.
“It was when I was in the town of Beaufort that I found this graveyard — this 18th century graveyard. It had a headstone that said, ‘Girl buried in rum keg.’ And I thought that was a story that just had to be written,” she said. “So I had that kernel in the back of my head — the story of that little girl — for several years.”
Simpson Smith, who was featured in Vogue magazine’s July “Women to Watch” series, said she’s been writing since she was young, but thought of it as a hobby versus a career.
“I didn’t really start taking myself seriously as a writer until I was in graduate school,” she said. “In my MFA program after I left UNC, I discovered that this is exactly what I need to be doing for the rest of my life.”
Simpson Smith said her studies in history pushed her to write.
“History was such a wonderful way to pursue storytelling for me. It never really felt like I was not following my dream,” she said. “I felt very happy, and yet there was this tiny part of me in the back of my head that said, ‘I need to just go and do this full time.’”