Manuscript-eating mules, marathons, illustrated mail: Carrie Cogan's journey to "Disappear Here"
Carrie Cogan
2nd place EQUAL “Disappear Here”
When Sebastian Faulks judged we had joint 2nd place winners this year, we couldn’t be happier for recipients Carrie Cogan and Jessica Elisheva Emerson. As Sebastian said, “With Disappear Here, probably the best written of the four winners from a literary point of view… I wanted to go on and read more. That’s the key to the beginning of a novel, to convince the reader you have something to say and to engage them…” Carrie certainly convinces and engages with her literary mystery of a child abducted in plain sight and the haunting consequences over subsequent years.
Synopsis:
Disappear Here, a work of literary fiction, is about a child named Athlone who goes missing, and the irrevocable ways this isolates her. When a detective from her case re-enters Athlone’s life, their connection challenges her silence, her stoicism and her secrets. At turns playful and dark, Disappear Here depicts the haunting aftermath of trauma, and explores the collision of two people sharpened by loneliness.
Congratulations on placing 2nd equal, Carrie. What was your inspiration for writing Disappear Here?
Disappear Here’s creation has been largely a case, as writing often is for me, of a character appearing on the page, beckoning me to follow. In tracking her, I’ve been able to explore many ideas I find compelling, such as: disappearances in plain sight; the contrasting proximity and distance within a family; the aliveness of inanimate objects; loners uniting; secret-keeping as both a power and a powerlessness. In addition to being a suspense novel, Disappear Here is a love story, which keeps me further engaged and invested.
The photographs of Sally Mann—their mix of secretive and candid, of dark and light—have also served as beacons to me, while working on the novel.
How long have you been writing?
I wanted to be inside books from a very early age. My mom kindly met my requests for Grimms’ Fairy Tales ad nauseam. As soon as I could write I started a diary. I mostly detailed dogs I had met that day, infusing these encounters with a ridiculous amount of devotion and nostalgia.
What were you doing when you heard you'd won joint 2nd?
I was writing, aptly. I’d set my phone in the other room, so I initially missed the call. When Lizzie rang again I’d just settled my sons at the table to do their daily schoolwork (pandemic style). Afterwards I ran in dancing and singing loudly about Paris and Prizes, ensuring they could do no work at all.
The phone connection had been spotty, and kept cutting out, so within an hour I convinced myself I had dreamed up the prize, as yet another quarantine coping mechanism.
What's your process/writing ritual or any favorite books you'd recommend?
I write early, before my sons wake up, and before my inner critic gets too loud. I often read my paragraphs aloud as I go, which makes writing in public places problematic. I’m constantly working to stay tight and refined—via precise cadence and clear visual detail, for example—but also to tap into, and run along with, deep feeling. I strive always, as I write, to maintain this balance of grounded and soaring.
So many books! The one I’m reading now is often my favourite one. But here are a few I’d recommend:
Alice Munro stories, always, for their subtle slipping of ordinary into extraordinary, for their sudden revelations and their rejection of linear chronology.
Ross Gay’s The Book of Delights, which details, to a contagious extent, the wonder of being a human in a body and in the world.
I return every few years to Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping, for its beautiful meditative prose, its voluptuous sadness.
More recently I admired the ambitious Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli, which catalogs a family’s last road trip together, from New York City to the Mexican border.
What are your next steps for “Disappear Here”?
I’m currently finishing it, so I can move along to the second draft. I’d say I have a quarter left to go. Until I submitted to the First Pages Prize I’d kept Disappear Here all to myself. So the affirmation, and the amplified fuel to finish that affirmation provides, is a big prize in itself.
What else should we know about you and your writing?
I can’t seem to write even the darkest of scenes without tossing in something funny. And vice versa.
I’ve completed six marathons, including the Boston Marathon, which helps me to remember that “training” days, even when they seem slow or small, are all building to an inspiring whole.
Once, when I lived in Mexico, some mules ate my entire book draft while I was swimming out to sea.
I love all things postal. For my side business, Mailey, I send out illustrated letters in the mail. https://www.carriecogan.com/
Thank you, Carrie, for sharing more inspiration about your writing journey. We can’t wait to read how Disappear Here ends!
Bio:
Carrie Cogan received an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and won the 2015 Tennessee Williams/ New Orleans Literary Festival Prize. Her stories have appeared in Nimrod, Gulf Coast, and Louisiana Literature, among others. She lives on Salt Spring Island, B.C., with her two sons. And with her dog, who—on forest trails—showcases the fastest wagging tail on earth. Visit her at https://www.carriecogan.com/