This week on The Write Question, host Lauren Korn speaks with Sarah Gerard, author of Carrie Carolyn Coco: My Friend, Her Murder, and an Obsession with the Unthinkable (Zando Projects). In 2016, twenty-five-year-old Carolyn Bush was brutally stabbed to death in her New York City apartment by her roommate, Render Stetson-Shanahan, leaving friends and family of both reeling. In life, Carolyn was a gregarious, smart-mouthed aspiring poet, who had seemingly gotten along well with Render, a reserved art handler. Where had it gone so terribly wrong? In their conversation Lauren and Sarah talk about centering Carolyn in a story with many characters, her motivations and voice, and the influence of Bard College during Render’s sentencing in 2020.
Writer Esmé Weijun Wang writes of the book, “What stuns about Carrie Carolyn Coco is not merely the tragic murder of a woman by her male roommate, but also the intricate ways in which Sarah Gerard unravels poison in the dark corners of Carolyn Bush’s world: a fancy liberal arts college with a chilling history of violence; the violence in Bush’s everyday existence; the web of people who are willing to stand up for Bush’s murderer, some with dubious motives. Gerard also illuminates Bush’s life by making her wildly and shimmeringly alive—she is not merely The Dead Girl of the narrative, but also a complex protagonist whose desires and idiosyncrasies are laid plain in this astonishing exploration.”
This conversation has been edited for time.
About Sarah:
Sarah Gerard is the author of a book of investigative journalism, Carrie Carolyn Coco: My Friend, Her Murder, and an Obsession with the Unthinkable; the essay collection Sunshine State, a New York Times Critics’ and NPR Best Book of the Year, a finalist for the Southern Book Prize, and longlisted for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award; the novels True Love and Binary Star, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times First Fiction Prize; a co-authored art book, Recycle; and the chapbook The Butter House.
Sarah’s short stories, essays, and interviews have appeared in The New York Times, T Magazine, Granta, McSweeney’s, The Believer, Vice, Electric Literature, and the anthologies We Can’t Help It If We’re From Florida, One Small Blow Against Encroaching Totalitarianism, Tampa Bay Noir, Erase the Patriarchy, I Know What’s Best For You: Stories on Reproductive Freedom, and FLORIDA! A Hyper-local Guide to the Flora, Fauna, and Fantasy of the Most Far-out State in America.
Sarah has been supported by grants, scholarships, and fellowships from Yaddo, Tin House, PlatteForum, the Whiting Foundation, Ucross, Word Riot, and Creative Pinellas. She was the 2018 2019 New College of Florida Writer-in-Residence, and recipient of a 2021 Lambda Literary Dr. James Duggins Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize. She holds an MFA from The New School and is a graduate student in the criminal justice program at CU Denver, studying gender-based violence. She’s a private investigator in Denver.
Books that informed Carrie Carolyn Coco:
Moby Dick: Or, The Whale by Herman Melville, a book that helped Sarah understand Render (Penguin Random House)
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values, particularly its approach to classical philosophy and education, by Robert M. Pirsig (Mariner Books; HarperCollins)
The Obituary, which Carolyn recommended to a friend prior to her death (Nightboat Books), and Biting the Error: Writers Explore Narrative (Coach House Books) by Gail Scott
Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene by Donna Haraway, which Carolyn was working her way through and had recommended to her partner (Duke University Press)
Of Forests and of Farms: On Faculty and Failure by Adjua Gargi Nzinga Greaves (Ugly Duckling Presse)
Lauren Korn recommends:
Carrie Carolyn Coco: My Friend, Her Murder, and an Obsession with the Unthinkable (Zando Projects); True Love (HarperCollins); Sunshine State (HarperCollins); and Binary Star (Two Dollar Radio) by Sarah Gerard
An Eros Encyclopedia by Rachel James, winner of the 2021 Carolyn Bush Award (Wendy’s Subway)
Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval, translated by Marjam Idriss (Verso Books)
Woman of Interest by Tracy O'Neill (HarperCollins)
The Red Parts: Autobiography of a Trial (Graywolf Press) and The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning (W. W. Norton & Company) by Maggie Nelson
Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession by Alice Bolin (HarperCollins)
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The Write Question team is Lauren Korn, host, co-producer, and editor; and Chris Moyles, co-producer and sound engineer. This episode is supported by Chapter One Bookstore in Hamilton, Montana, a literary and community resource for the Bitterroot Valley—providing space to explore, discover, and share passions since 1974. More information can be found at Chapter1Bookstore.com.
The Write Question logo and brand (2022) was designed by Molly Russell. You can see more of her work at iamthemollruss.com and on Instagram @iamthemollruss.
Funding for The Write Question comes from Humanities Montana; members of Montana Public Radio; and from the Greater Montana Foundation—encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans.
The Write Question is a production of Montana Public Radio.
