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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...

Do You Want To Dip The Rat   Do you want to dip the rat Completely in oil   Do you want to dip the rat Before we eat it eat it   Do you want to dip the rat Completely in oil   Before we eat it   Tender tender meat Like pork shoulder   A hundred traps set Eighty hanging in a row to be broiled   With you I’d take it raw   Tiny pink feet Glistening with oil   Legs and feet Glistening with oil   Matted fur and face Weighted down with oil   Everything in oil But the teeth are shiny clean   No what I really want to know Before you open that mouth again   Should we completely dip the rat in oil Before we eat it eat it   Should we completely Dip the rat in oil   Before we eat it       The Nurse Said   The nurse said To swallow The brown pills first     Then the blue Then she said to take the blue And throw them on the floor     And stamp stamp Stamp hard She said     Outside the thunder is very rough What is the sun if not an ending You and the other people     When you split from the man in the poem Baby Nothing sadder than that     Nothing sadder than that Had ever happened to me I cried and cried     But it was silent Like spring tears Like some sort of spring green     Civil law Is tender It’s tender like the skin     Like the skin Come too soon Like the pink skin with blood     But my blood grew But my blood Grew in you     You were so green Now you are so blue The nurse said     Eat the yellow ones I eat the sun And my face is not afraid     Do you hear me I am not afraid I’ve fought this long     You will not Break Me     You sweet, sweet one Sweet and tender Like pork shoulder     Sweet Sweet and gone Lips pursed in a ribbon  

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

February 2011

The dole, and other bailouts

Chris Browne

feature

February 2011

One of my first actions as a Londoner was to sign on for as many benefits as I could...

poetry

January 2014

Letters from a Seducer

Hilda Hilst

TR. John Keene

poetry

January 2014

At her death in 2004, Brazilian author Hilda Hilst had received a number of her country’s important literary prizes...

feature

Issue No. 15

Translation in the First Person

Kate Briggs

feature

Issue No. 15

IT IS 1 JUNE 2015 and I am standing outside no. 11 rue Servandoni in Paris’s sixth arrondissement. I...

 

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