Carol Lynn Pearson was born in Salt Lake City on September 27, 1939. She received an M.A. in theatre arts at Brigham Young University, where twice she won the “Best Actress” award, once for her performance of Joan of Arc in Anouilh’s “The Lark.”
After traveling the world for a year, she began writing scripts for BYU’s Motion Picture Studio. One that continues to receive attention and won numerous international awards was a short educational film, “Cipher in the Snow.”
In 1966 she married Gerald Pearson, who started her literary career by insisting that they publish a volume of her poetry. After being rejected by publishers in Salt Lake City, Gerald determined to become a publisher himself and the couple borrowed $2000 to print 2000 copies of a slim volume named Beginnings. To everyone’s surprise, the book was instantly a local best-seller and ultimately sold over 125,000 copies. That book was followed by over forty other books and stage plays.
Carol Lynn received national attention with her memoir Goodbye, I Love You, the story of her twelve-year Mormon temple marriage to man who was gay despite every effort not to be, their four children, their divorce and ongoing friendship, and his death from AIDS in her home where she was caring for him. This story, published by Random House, put her on “Oprah,” “Good Morning America” and in “People” magazine.
Many of her subsequent works have been geared toward developing understanding of LGBTQ people, parti ... view more »
Carol Lynn Pearson was born in Salt Lake City on September 27, 1939. She received an M.A. in theatre arts at Brigham Young University, where twice she won the “Best Actress” award, once for her performance of Joan of Arc in Anouilh’s “The Lark.”
After traveling the world for a year, she began writing scripts for BYU’s Motion Picture Studio. One that continues to receive attention and won numerous international awards was a short educational film, “Cipher in the Snow.”
In 1966 she married Gerald Pearson, who started her literary career by insisting that they publish a volume of her poetry. After being rejected by publishers in Salt Lake City, Gerald determined to become a publisher himself and the couple borrowed $2000 to print 2000 copies of a slim volume named Beginnings. To everyone’s surprise, the book was instantly a local best-seller and ultimately sold over 125,000 copies. That book was followed by over forty other books and stage plays.
Carol Lynn received national attention with her memoir Goodbye, I Love You, the story of her twelve-year Mormon temple marriage to man who was gay despite every effort not to be, their four children, their divorce and ongoing friendship, and his death from AIDS in her home where she was caring for him. This story, published by Random House, put her on “Oprah,” “Good Morning America” and in “People” magazine.
Many of her subsequent works have been geared toward developing understanding of LGBTQ people, particularly within religious communities. In 2019 she was given the “Impact” award by Equality Utah. Her work toward transforming patriarchy into partnership is particularly evident in a one-woman play she wrote and performed over 300 times, Mother Wove the Morning, in which she plays sixteen women throughout history in search of the female face of God, and which was given an award by Booklist as one of the top 25 videos of the year. A similar theme is addressed in a book of poetry published in 2020, Finding Mother God: Poems to Heal the World.
Many of her works have had impact within the church that she still attends, such as the disturbing and ground-breaking The Ghost of Eternal Polygamy: Haunting the Hearts and Heaven of Mormon Women and Men. In 2019 she received the “Lifetime Achievement Award” from the Association for Mormon Letters.
She lives in Walnut Creek, California.
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