Joanna Pearson

This week we visit with Joanna Pearson in Carrboro, NC. 

Joanna Pearson’s newest book, MORE HAPPY LOVE, a story collection, is forthcoming with Bloomsbury in May 2027, and her second novel, JUSTINE, (currently in progress!) will be published by Bloomsbury thereafter. Her debut novel, BRIGHT AND TENDER DARK (Bloomsbury, 2024), was an Indie Next Pick, an Amazon Editors’ Pick, and longlisted for the Crook’s Corner Book Prize. Her second story collection, NOW YOU KNOW IT ALL (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2021), was chosen by Edward P. Jones for the 2021 Drue Heinz Literature Prize and named a finalist for the Virginia Literary Awards. Her first story collection, EVERY HUMAN LOVE (Acre Books, 2019) was a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Awards, the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for Fiction, and the Foreword INDIES Awards. Originally from western North Carolina, she now lives with her husband and two daughters near Chapel Hill, where she works as a psychiatrist.

Joanna's Books on the Bed:

The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor

Bobcat and Other Stories by Rebecca Lee

Collected Stories by Shirley Hazzard (Edited by Brigitta Olubas; Foreword by Zoë Heller)

A Lucky Man: Stories by Jamel Brinkley

(Interlude) Jenny, The Halloween Spy by Lillie Patterson

After the Funeral and Other Stories by Tessa Hadley

The Giant's House by Elizabeth McCracken

 

Matt's Gifts for Joanna:

The Strange Beautiful by Carla Crujido

From the Hilltop by Toni Jensen

Monday, Monday by Elizabeth Crook