Julia Ridley Smith’s first book, The Sum of Trifles, is a memoir about cleaning out her antique-dealer parents’ house, grief, and what the objects we live with mean to us. Smith’s short stories and essays have appeared in the Alaska Quarterly Review, Ecotone, Electric Literature, the New England Review, and The Southern Review, among other places. Smith teaches creative writing at UNC Chapel Hill.

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Sex Romp Gone Wrong: Stories

In her debut story collection, Julia Ridley Smith navigates the currents and eddies of desire, sex, love, and relationships.

These twelve highly accomplished stories are witty and accessible, intelligent and thought-provoking. A girls' week at the beach prompts hot tub drinking, awkward confessions, and a poignant reconsideration of friendship. A caregiver extracts a small repayment from her elderly patient for his long-forgotten role in the demise of her family. A young woman, new to New York City, finds herself in a complex but tacky love affair and reckons with the unfolding plot of her life. In the title story, a woman plots to conceive a second child while at a convention hotel with her husband and teenage daughter, both of whom have other plans. Smith’s stories will beguile and delight readers while at the same time exploring the deep and often difficult ties of family, marriage, and romantic love in modern life.