Carrie Cogan 2020 2nd Place - on gaining confidence, the developmental edit & agent consultation

Carrie Cogan - 2020 2nd Place Equal, Disappear Here

What made you decide to submit your work to the First Pages Prize?

I’d been working on a novel awhile, not showing it or talking about it at all, and fighting against the standard writerly doubts that it was any good. Also, I’ve always wanted to go to Paris, and that was the prize offered for winners (until Covid struck). 

How did you decide what you wanted to submit? 

I submitted the opening of my novel, because I knew those pages built tension and character, yet were also leisurely with descriptive detail, as is my style. 

And then, what was it like to be one of the final winners? 

Amazing. I found out in the early, surreal days of the pandemic, when everything had turned bleak quickly. I think because of this, the good news about a victory registered with amplified glee. I rarely sent out my writing, so that phone call from Lizzie (FPP director at the time) was a complete surprise. Even though the winners weren’t able to go to Paris, I half pretended we still were, and I researched Paris more thoroughly, including The American Library in Paris. 

What changed for you as a result of being a final winner?

Being a FPP winner gave me the confidence to work harder on my writing, and to send more of it out to contests, publications and literary opportunities. 

What was your experience with the editorial guidance that came with the prize—how was the process and what impact did it have on your work?

Lizzie Harwood provided edits on four chapters of my novel. Her notes at the line level were excellent, as were her comments and questions on bigger picture issues. She’s a very astute reader. I applied her minute edits right away, and chewed thoroughly on all the ones dealing with the novel’s larger aspects. A few of these comments ended up steering me too. One really helpful way she responded was with a section titled “reader expectations at 6,200 words in” (the reader being her). It was impressive and moving, the extent to which she grasped, contemplated and appreciated this manuscript that I had begun to take for some secret, mad dream. 

Similarly, what impact did the agent consultation have? What did you learn from it?

I learned, first off, how to write a decent novel synopsis, as preparation for my consultation. Caroline Hardman, agent at Hardman & Swainson, was wonderful. She spoke about my novel with insight and interest, asked sharp questions, and offered informative details on the novel publication process. I learned specifics about the agent and editor dynamic, for example. She drew a comparison between my book and another I’d read before but hadn’t considered. Her questions on my novel’s chronology inspired me to contemplate using a less linear narration. As a bonus, she asked to see my novel when it’s finished. I’d been worried about pitching an incomplete book, but Caroline helpfully met me right where I was in the process. 

What has surprised you most about being part of this prize?

I hadn’t expected the level of interest, enthusiasm and support that came with it. Particularly from Lizzie, who communicated on literary issues above and beyond the prize, and even purchased a personal subscription to my paper letter business. But my conversations with the other winners, and with the FPP President Clydette de Groot, were also encouraging and inspiring. The First Pages Prize genuinely seems to care about fostering their winners’ writing, which was evident to me from the first contact.    

What advice or tips might you have for people thinking of submitting to the FIRST PAGES PRIZE this year?

Do it. Even if your novel isn’t complete or perfect. Try and make sure your opening pages are actually your most compelling—or, to put that another way, make sure your novel begins where it should. Know that even if you don’t win, your entry fee will be going towards an organization doing the good fight to support undiscovered writers and writing.

Have you finished your novel?

I’ve gotten waylaid, but in the best way: by writing another novel. It started as a short story, a kind of looser, freer outlet for the tight, stark sentences of my novel. But then it grabbed me by the throat and took over.  

Last spring this new novel (and I) were chosen for an intensive six person, twelve week novel workshop with the writer Aysegül Savas (who lives in Paris, coincidentally. So in our weekly zoom calls I actually did, in a way, get to Paris). I’m nearly done with the first draft—90,000 words and counting—and am wildly excited to get it out into the world. This is for many reasons, but a prime one being so that I can return to, and finish, my FPP winner, Disappear Here. In writing this second novel I’ve acquired so many skills and habits I’ll apply to it. I miss my protagonist Athlone, and have left her mute and frozen in place far too long.   

Any recent published writing we can read?

I have an essay forthcoming in AGNI (fall 2022).