Carrboro author Joanna Pearson celebrated the release of her debut novel last week after joining the inaugural class of State Fellows for Literary Art from the regional organization South Arts.
Created in 2017, South Arts supports artists in a variety of disciplines across the southeast region with grants and fellowships – but it hasn’t had a literary arts component until this year. Pearson had already been familiar with the nonprofit, the program’s expansion meant that she had the opportunity to participate.
“Their mission is to support southern vitality through the arts. And so I’d been aware, I knew they supported visual artists and musicians, and then I happened to see that they were starting this literary arts fellowship, and I thought – ‘why not [apply?]’”
South Arts awarded 18 State Fellows with $5,000, and Pearson will now compete for the larger Southern Prize award. She’s the fellowship’s only author from North Carolina – and she used her home state as the inspiration for her debut novel.
Released on June 4 by Bloomsbury, Pearson describes “Bright and Tender Dark” as a literary mystery mixed with local flavor. Set in Chapel Hill, a woman receives a letter 20 years after the death of her college roommate, and it calls into doubt who is imprisoned for the murder. Pearson also works in psychiatry, and she said that background inspired how she approached the story. She said it’s an exploration of what’s going on in people’s minds.
Pearson’s debut novel, ‘Bright and Tender Dark.’ (Photo via Bloomsbury 2024.)
“No character should ever be fully saintly good, no character should ever be fully downright evil, as in life. And so that’s what really interested me in exploring these people on the page.”
Pearson has written several award-winning short story collections, and the first chapter of “Bright and Tender Dark” started out as one. After it was selected for The Best American Short Stories, she said she wanted to see how the story would play out.
“I just had the feeling it was very much a standalone short story, but I thought, you know what? This world, this story I think I could turn this into a chapter and build out a novel from it.”
Pearson said that not only has the local literary community supported her work, but that the book has also received national praise. It was featured on Oprah Daily’s The Best Summer Books to Read on Vacation in 2024 and was picked for June’s Indie Next Pick List by the American Booksellers Association.
The book is available anywhere books are sold, but Pearson encourages visiting local bookstores like Flyleaf Books, Epilogue, McIntyre’s Books, and Golden Fig Books.
To listen to the full interview with Pearson, click here.
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