He was a student at North Carolina State University, where he gained a BA and MA in English.
Neither was published until 1985, when he moved to New York City, where both books were issued by Linden Press.
His writing captures a uniquely Southern social order, outlook, and voice and has been compared to the work of Mark Twain and William Faulkner.
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 Notable Books.
[1] Under the pen name Rick Gavin, Pearson wrote a series of three crime novels, set in the Mississippi Delta, featuring repo man Nick Reid and his best friend, Desmond.