Joanna Pearson
Recipient Information
Location
Chapel Hill-Carrboro, North Carolina
Medium
Literary Arts
Year of Award
2027
Grant or Fellowship
Southern Artist Spotlight Grant
Grant Amount
$0
Joanna Pearson’s newest book, MORE HAPPY LOVE, a story collection, is forthcoming with Bloomsbury in 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. Her fiction has been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Mystery and Suspense, The Best Small Fictions, and Best of the Net. Joanna has received fellowships supporting her writing from MacDowell, VCCA, Yaddo, South Arts, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and the North Carolina Arts Council/Durham Arts Council. She holds an MFA in poetry from the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars and an MD from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Originally from western North Carolina, she now lives with her husband and two daughters near Chapel Hill, where she works as a psychiatrist.
Artist Fee: $2,000 - $10,000
Availability: Out-of-state travel is feasible with covered travel expenses and sufficient lead time to arrange coverage for the day-to-day role.