Pearson is probably best known for her book
Goodbye, I Love You and the LDS musical
My Turn On Earth. Her play
Facing East, about a Mormon family dealing with the suicide of a gay son, opened Off Broadway on 29 May 2007. She also wrote
One On The Seesaw, a lighthearted book about raising a family as a single parent.
Pearson's first book was the poetry collection,
Beginnings, published in 1969. Her other works include
- The Search (1970)
- The Order is Love (1971)
- Daughters of Light (1973)
- Cipher in the Snow (screenplay) 1973
- The Growing Season (1976)
- The Flight and the Nest (1977)
- A Widening View (1983)
- Blow Out the Wishbone (1985)
- Goodbye, I Love You: The Story of a Wife, Her Homosexual Husband, and a Love Honored For Time And All Eternity (1987) ISBN: 1-55517-984-3
- Lasting Peace (1990)
- Mother Wove the Morning (1992)
- Women I Have Known and Been (1993)
- Picture Windows: A Carol Lynn Pearson Collection (1996)
- Morning Glory Mother (1997)
- The Lesson: A Fable For Our Times (1998)
- What Love Is (1999)
- Fuzzy Red Bathrobe: Questions From the Heart For Mothers and Daughters (2000)
- Girlfriend, You Are the Best! (2001)
- Day-Old Child And Other Celebrations of Motherhood (2001)
- Will You Still Be My Daughter? A Fable For Our Times (2001)
- A Strong Man: A Fable For Our Times (2001)
- The Gift: A Fable For Our Times (2001)
- Consider the Butterfly: Transforming Your Life Through Meaningful Coincidence (2002)
- A Christmas Thief (2003) ISBN 978-1-59955-184-5
- The Modern Magi (2003)
- The Christmas Moment (2005) ISBN 1-55517-869-3
- Beginnings and Beyond (2005) ISBN 1-55517-870-7
- The Model Mormon Mother's Notebook (2005) ISBN 1-55517-858-8
- The Runaway Mother (2006) ISBN 1-55517-927-4
- A Stranger For Christmas (2007) ISBN 978-1-59955-088-6
- In Love Again and Always: Love Poems by Carol Lynn Pearson (2007) ISBN: 978-1-59955-042-8
- The Dance (2007) ISBN 978-1-59955-097-8
- Summer of Truth (2007) ISBN 978-1-59955-046-6
- No More Goodbyes: Circling the Wagons Around Our Gay Loved Ones (2007)
- Priceless Moments: Snapshots of Motherhood (2008) ISBN 978-59955-145-2