Biography

Pearson was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Winston-Salem is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina, with a 2010 population of 229,617. Winston-Salem is the county seat and largest city of Forsyth County and the fourth-largest city in the state. Winston-Salem is the second largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region and is home to...

. He was a student at North Carolina State University

North Carolina State University

North Carolina State University at Raleigh is a public, coeducational, extensive research university located in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Commonly known as NC State, the university is part of the University of North Carolina system and is a land, sea, and space grant institution...

, where he gained a B.A.

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 and M.A.

Master of Arts (postgraduate)

A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...

 in English. He went on to teach at Peace College

Peace College

William Peace University is a small liberal arts college located in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. It is affiliated with the Presbyterian church.-History:...

 in Raleigh, North Carolina

Raleigh, North Carolina

Raleigh is the capital and the second largest city in the state of North Carolina as well as the seat of Wake County. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks" for its many oak trees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's 2010 population was 403,892, over an area of , making Raleigh...

. He started work on a Ph.D.

Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...

 in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

 but soon returned to North Carolina, where he worked as a carpenter and a housepainter while he began writing his first two novels, A Short History of a Small Place

A Short History of a Small Place

A Short History of a Small Place is a 1985 novel by T. R. Pearson. Set in the fictional town of Neely, North Carolina - a thinly disguised Reidsville - it tells, in a rambling and digressive manner, about the life and eventual suicide of the town's only aristocratic woman, Miss Myra Angelique...

and Off for the Sweet Hereafter

Off for the Sweet Hereafter

Off for the Sweet Hereafter is a 1986 novel by T. R. Pearson. The story opens with a sentence over 400 words long:That was the summer we lost the bald Jeeter who was not even mostly Jeeter anymore but was probably mostly Throckmorton or anyway was probably considered mostly Throckmorton which was...

. Neither was published until 1985, when he moved to New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, where both books were issued by Linden Press

Simon & Schuster

Simon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...

.

His novels are set in the South

Southern United States

The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...

, in the imaginary small town of Neely, near Winston–Salem, or, in his recent novels, in the Appalachia

Appalachia

Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in the U.S...

n areas of Virginia, where he now lives. His writing captures a uniquely Southern social order, outlook, and voice and has been compared to the work of Mark Twain

Mark Twain

Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...

 and William Faulkner

William Faulkner

William Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner worked in a variety of media; he wrote novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essays and screenplays during his career...

.

A Short History of a Small Place, Off for the Sweet Hereafter, The Last of How It Was, Cry Me a River, Polar and Blue Ridge were New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

Notable Books.

Pearson also collaborated with John Grisham

John Grisham

John Ray Grisham, Jr. is an American lawyer and author, best known for his popular legal thrillers.John Grisham graduated from Mississippi State University before attending the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1981 and practiced criminal law for about a decade...

 on early drafts of the screenplays for The Rainmaker

The Rainmaker (1997 film)

The Rainmaker is a 1997 American drama film directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Matt Damon. Coppola wrote the script, based on the 1995 novel of the same name by John Grisham....

(1997) and Runaway Jury

Runaway Jury

Runaway Jury is a 2003 American drama/thriller film directed by Gary Fleder and starring John Cusack, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, and Rachel Weisz...

(1998), films based on two of Grisham's novels.

Pearson is married and lives in Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

.

Fiction

• A Short History of a Small Place
  A Short History of a Small Place
  A Short History of a Small Place is a 1985 novel by T. R. Pearson. Set in the fictional town of Neely, North Carolina - a thinly disguised Reidsville - it tells, in a rambling and digressive manner, about the life and eventual suicide of the town's only aristocratic woman, Miss Myra Angelique...
  
  (Linden Press, 1985)
• Off for the Sweet Hereafter
  Off for the Sweet Hereafter
  Off for the Sweet Hereafter is a 1986 novel by T. R. Pearson. The story opens with a sentence over 400 words long:That was the summer we lost the bald Jeeter who was not even mostly Jeeter anymore but was probably mostly Throckmorton or anyway was probably considered mostly Throckmorton which was...
  
  (Linden Press, 1986)
• The Last of How It Was (Linden Press, 1987)
• Call and Response (Linden Press, 1989)
• Gospel Hour (William Morrow, 1991)
• Cry Me a River (Henry Holt, 1993)
• Blue Ridge (Viking, 2000)
• Polar (Viking, 2002)
• True Cross (Viking, 2003)
• Glad News of the Natural World (Simon & Schuster, 2005)
• Red Scare: A Novel of Venomous Intrigue (Barking Mad Press, 2008)
• Jerusalem Gap (Barking Mad Press (September 1, 2010)
• Warwolf (A Ray Tatum Mystery) ( Barking Mad Press, 2011)

Non-fiction

• Seaworthy: Adrift with William Willis in the Golden Age of Rafting (Crown, 2006) — This is his first nonfiction book about adventurer William Willis
  William Willis (traveller)
  William Willis was an American sailor and writer who is famous due to his solo rafting expeditions across oceans. Willis became a sailor at 15, leaving his home in Hamburg to sail around Cape Horn....
  
  .
• Year of Our Lord: Faith, Hope and Harmony in the Mississippi Delta (Mockingbird Publishing (October 1, 2010)-Text by Pearson, photographs by Langdon Clay