Author Joanna Pearson sits down with Emily to discuss her debut novel - Bright and Tender Dark.

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Joanna Pearson is the author of two short story collections and a book of poetry. Her stories have appeared in The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Mystery and Suspense, and many other publications. She has won the Drue Heinz Literature Prize and been a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Awards, the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, and the Virginia Literary Awards. She lives in North Carolina, where she works as a psychiatrist.

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Joanna's debut novel, Bright and Tender Dark (bookshop.org)(libro.fm) is out Tuesday, June 4, 2024!

BRIGHT AND TENDER DARK is this week's FCB Book of the Week! Between now and June 10, 2024, enjoy 15% off your copy in store or online at friendlycitybooks.com!

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About BRIGHT AND TENDER DARK:

Days after the dawn of Y2K, beautiful, charismatic nineteen-year-old Karlie Richards is found brutally murdered in her campus apartment. Two decades later, those who knew Karlie—and those who just knew of her—remain consumed by her death. Among them is her freshman-year roommate, Joy, now middle-aged and mid-divorce, living in the same college town and desperate for a new beginning.

When she stumbles upon a twenty-year-old letter from Karlie, Joy becomes convinced the man in prison for her murder was wrongfully convicted. Soon she is diving deep into the dark world of internet conspiracy theorists and amateur sleuth blogs and bouncing off others touched by the long, sensational aftermath of this crime. They include KC, the trans night manager at the building where Karlie was killed; Sheri, the mother of the man serving time; and Jacob Hendrix, the charming professor with whom, Joy knows all too well, Karlie was romantically entangled before her death.

Jumping between 2019 and 1999, Bright and Tender Dark takes us from the era of Reddit threads and online obsession to the evangelism-infused culture of the late ’90s to reveal what really happened to Karlie. It is a compulsively readable, prismatic literary debut that brilliantly mines the mythology of murder, the power of urban legend, and the psychological urge to both protect and exploit what you love but cannot have.

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For a video version of this author interview, check out the Friendly City Books Youtube channel!

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Thank you for supporting Friendly City Books by listening to our podcast. Shop with us in store and online at friendlycitybooks.com/shop or through bookshop.org and libro.fm.

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Host: Emily Liner

Guest Author: Joanna Pearson

Music: Rear Projection by Hartle Road

Production Assistance: Neon Newt Media LLC

Friendly City Books Inc.

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