Short stories by Joanna Pearson
**Joanna Pearson is a lapsed poet who once wrote a young adult novel on a whim and nowadays mostly writes [non-young-adult] fiction. Her second collection of stories, NOW YOU KNOW IT ALL, was selected by Edward P. Jones for the 2021 Drue Heinz Literature Prize and is forthcoming with Univ. of Pittsburgh Press in October. Her first collection of stories, EVERY HUMAN LOVE (Acre Books, 2019) was a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Awards, the Foreword INDIES Awards, and the Janet Heidinger Prize for Fiction. Her fiction has appeared in various journals and has been anthologized in The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2021,The Best Small Fictions 2019, and Best of the Net 2016. Her stories have also been listed among the year’s most notable in Best American Short Stories 2020, 2019, 2018, & 2015. **
Listing 2 stories.
On her drive to her hometown in Georgia, a medical student contemplates the recent death of her reckless friend and picks up a stranger with a cast on the side of the road.
A thirteen-year-old boy disappears into the woods after his birthday party.