Mailing List


Claire-Louise Bennett
Claire-Louise Bennett grew up in Wiltshire and studied literature and drama at the University of Roehampton, before settling in Galway. Her short fiction and essays have been published in The Stinging Fly, The Penny Dreadful, The Moth, Colony, The Irish Times, The White Review and gorse. She was awarded the inaugural White Review Short Story Prize in 2013 and has received bursaries from the Arts Council and Galway City Council. Her debut novel, Pondwas published by Fitzcarraldo Editions in 2015 and shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize in 2016. Her second novel, Checkout 19, is published by Jonathan Cape in August 2021.

Articles Available Online


The Russian Man

Fiction

Issue No. 27

Claire-Louise Bennett

Fiction

Issue No. 27

Many years ago a large Russian man with the longest tendrils of the softest white hair came to live in the fastest growing town...

poetry

Issue No. 13

Morning, Noon & Night

Claire-Louise Bennett

poetry

Issue No. 13

Sometimes a banana with coffee is nice. It ought not to be too ripe – in fact there should...

This story featured in The White Review 18, published in 2016       On the way to the dental clinic they talk about going home for Christmas It’s November and Marianne is having a wisdom tooth removed Connell is driving her to the clinic because he’s her only friend with a car, and also the only person in whom she confides about distasteful medical conditions like impacted teeth He sometimes drives her to the doctor’s office when she needs antibiotics for urinary tract infections, which is often They are twenty-three   Connell parks up around the corner from the clinic and the radio switches itself off He has taken the morning off work to drive Marianne to the appointment, which he hasn’t told her He’s doing it partly out of guilt A week previously Marianne gave him head in his apartment and complained afterwards that her jaw hurt, and he was like, do you have to complain about everything all the time? Then they argued They were both a little drunk   Marianne remembers the incident differently She remembers giving Connell head for a while on his sofa and then she stopped because her mouth hurt He was pretty nice about it and they had sex on his couch instead Only afterwards, when she started talking about her mouth again, did Connell say: you complain a lot more than other people They were lying side by side on the sofa then Marianne said, you mean your other girlfriends And Connell said no, he meant people, as in everyone He said no one he knew in any capacity complained as much as Marianne   You don’t like hearing people complain because you’re incapable of expressing sympathy, Marianne said   I already told you I was sorry the first time you complained   You like women who don’t complain because you don’t want to see women as fully human   Every time I criticise you, it turns into a thing about me hating women, he said   Marianne started to sit up then She gathered her hair into a roll and felt for a clip to put through it   I find it suspicious, she said That you always

Contributor

August 2014

Claire-Louise Bennett

Contributor

August 2014

Claire-Louise Bennett grew up in Wiltshire and studied literature and drama at the University of Roehampton, before settling in...

The Lady of the House

fiction

Issue No. 8

Claire-Louise Bennett

fiction

Issue No. 8

Wow it’s so still. Isn’t it eerie. Oh yes. So calm. Everything’s still. That’s right. Look at the rowers – look at how fast...

READ NEXT

feature

April 2017

The White Review Short Story Prize 2017 Shortlist (US & Canada)

feature

April 2017

click on the title to read the story   1,040 MPH by Alexander Slotnick   Abu One-Eye by Rav...

poetry

Issue No. 11

Poems from [---] Placeholder

Rob Halpern

poetry

Issue No. 11

Obscene Intimacy My soldier was found unresponsive restrained In his cell death being due to blunt force injuries To...

fiction

January 2014

Son of Man

Yi Mun-yol

TR. Brother Anthony of Taizé

fiction

January 2014

Rain falling onto thick layers of accumulated dust had left the windows of the criminal investigations office so mottled...

 

Get our newsletter

 

* indicates required