Joanna Pearson is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and psychiatrist. She published a book of short stories, Every Human Love, in 2019 and a mystery-thriller novel, Bright and Tender Dark, in 2024. Pearson is a recipient of the Donald Justice Poetry Prize and the Drue Heinz Literature Prize.

Joanna Pearson
Occupation
  • writer
  • psychiatrist
Alma materUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars (MFA)
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (MD)
PeriodContemporary
GenresMystery fiction
Thriller
Children2
Website
joanna-pearson.com

Early life and education

edit

Pearson grew up in Cleveland County, North Carolina.[1] She was presented to society at the North Carolina Debutante Ball in Raleigh in 1999.[1]

Pearson graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2002.[2] She obtained a master of fine arts degree in poetry from the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars and a medical degree from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.[3][4]

Career

edit

Her short stories have appeared in The Alaska Quarterly Review, storySouth, Blackbird, Colorado Review, Mississippi Review, Shenandoah, and Joyland.[3][1][5] In 2012, she won the Donald Justice Poetry Prize. Her short story Changeling was honored as a distinguished story in The Best American Short Stories in 2015.[3] In May 2019, she published a collection of short stories as a book, titled Every Human Love.[3] In 2021, she was awarded the Drue Heinz Literature Prize.[6][7] She was nominated for the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize and a Virginia Literary Award.[8] She was the only North Carolinian in South Arts' inaugural class of State Fellows for Literary Arts.[9]

Her debut novel, Bright and Tender Dark, was published by Bloomsbury Press in 2024.[8] The novel is a mystery-thriller work.[10][11]

Pearson also works as a psychiatrist.[12]

Personal life

edit

Pearson lives in Carrboro, North Carolina with her husband and two children.[4]

References

edit
  1. ^ a b c Pearson, Joanna. "Confession: I Was a Reluctant Debutante". storySouth. Retrieved July 20, 2024.
  2. ^ "Joanna Pearson". UNC English & Comparative Literature.
  3. ^ a b c d "Joanna Pearson". University of Chicago Press.
  4. ^ a b Edwards, Sarah (June 26, 2024). "A profile of Carrboro author Joanna Pearson". INDY Week.
  5. ^ "Joanna Pearson | Kenyon Review Author". The Kenyon Review.
  6. ^ "Request Rejected". www.utimes.pitt.edu.
  7. ^ Duffus, Matthew (June 4, 2024). ""An Entirely New Kind of Challenge": A Conversation with Joanna Pearson".
  8. ^ a b "Bright and Tender Dark with Joanna Pearson".
  9. ^ Keck, Aaron (June 5, 2024). "On Air Today: Joanna Pearson, 'Bright and Tender Dark'".
  10. ^ Dumpleton, Elise (June 4, 2024). "Q&A: Joanna Pearson, Author of 'Bright and Tender Dark'".
  11. ^ Commission, Orange County Arts (January 19, 2024). "Joanna Pearson's Debut Novel 'Bright and Tender Dark' Is a Thrilling Literary Mystery".
  12. ^ "Writers' Day Jobs: Joanna Pearson - The Cincinnati Review". May 25, 2021.